Lucky isn't exactly the right word
by holdme4evr
Summary: “Oh most definitely. You’re going to enjoy every second of it.” I could feel his smile against my ear and I couldn’t help but smile in return. I jumped at the sound of the elevator doors opening and quickly pushed Dane away. cute story please read!
1. Prologue

********Hi so I know this story doesn't have to do with werewolves or twilight or anything, but please read it and tell me what you think! Thanks ********

Prologue:

Shape-shifters are real. Let's just start with that. If you hadn't known, now you do. They came forward and announced themselves to the world a year ago.

Many people were horrified, while others denied their existence. At first I was skeptical, but that was only until the night I turned seventeen. My birthday to be exact.

I wasn't big on birthday parties or celebrations and my family knew that and for once in their lives they respected that. So we had a family dinner and then stayed home and watched a movie together.

It was one of my all time favorite movies, A Walk to Remember. Even my dad and older brother, Seth, watched it, although only because it was my birthday.

My friends wanted to bring me out to dinner, but I said we would do something later. They would probably drag me out of my house if I didn't agree to go.

I love my two best friends to death. I had known Beth and Emily since I was five when we all ended up going to the same camp. We bonded instantly and have been close ever since.

It was half way through the movie, at my favorite part where Landon tells her he loves her, when Katy our one year old golden retriever started barking like crazy at something outside in the back yard. My dad told her to shush, but she ignored him.

"Maybe she has to go to the bathroom?" My mom suggested.

Seth got up and let her out. Then came back to claim his seat on the couch next to me. We were close, Seth and I. Always had been.

Yes, we had the occasional fights, mostly because he is an overprotective brother who doesn't know how to keep his nose out of my love life.

Besides that Seth is probably the sweetest guy you will ever meet, although his appearance says otherwise. He has short dark black hair and is at least six three. All my friends say he is the hottest thing since Brad Pitt, but I just see my brother.

He pretends to be a rebel and bad boy, but he's different when he's with me. The sweetest guy ever.

A few minutes later we hear Katy's muffled barks from outside. This time dad gets up to go see why Katy's freaking out. She doesn't normally bark. Actually hardly at all. So something wasn't right.

We heard dad calling for Katy and then all of sudden Katy's barks were silenced by the strangest sound. One only heard at zoos and in the wild. It sounded like a death sentence.

Six months later I still hear that roar. Mom reacted first. Jumping up from her chair and running to the screen door that looked out, over the back yard.

We quickly followed. Seth running in front of me to get to the door first. All I could see was Seth's back and mom's head. What was happening?

Then I heard another growl. One that definitely did not come from Katy. It was pitch black out so I doubt Seth and mom could see much. I tried to jump to see over mom's head, but all I saw was darkness.

Then there was a shout coming from my father. Seth stepped out into the yard and inched toward where he had last heard dad.

"Riley… Ry. Go get me a flash light. The one on top of the refrigerator." Seth told me. I quickly ran into the kitchen. I had to jump to reach the top of the fridge, but was able to grab it and run back to Seth.

Mom grabbed my hand before I could take a step outside. I threw the flashlight to him and he quickly turned it on.

"Dad? Dad where are? Are you okay?... Dad!" No reply answered Seth. "Dad!" I screamed into the night.

Seth wildly turned the flashlight trying to see everywhere at once. The light finally landed on a heap in the grass. Seth refocused it and it was then that we saw the tiger standing over our father's body.

The tiger was huge. Bigger than all the ones in the zoo. He was staring right at Seth. Seeming to stare through him. He licked his lips that were covered in our father's blood.

"Seth." My mom whispered. The tiger would surely get him too, but before Seth could do anything the tiger turned around and leapt away into the night. Gone forever.

Everything was a blur after that. I remembered seeing the blue and red lights of flashing police cars and ambulances. I remembered the cries of my mother for her dead husband.

And I remember looking into Seth's eyes. Eyes of a son who just lost his dad, his hero. The second I saw those eyes I turned around and ran to my room.

I locked myself in there for days. I didn't let anyone in. I barely ate and if I did it just came back up again. My father had been everything to me. I was his little princess, even though I was seventeen.

He would say you'll always be my little girl, no matter what. And now he was gone. I didn't think I would ever get through it. I didn't know what to do anymore. But the one thing I did know was that that tiger was no ordinary tiger.

It was a shape-shifter.


	2. Chapter 1: Worst Field Trip Ever

Chapter 1: Worst Field Trip Ever… (Six and a half months later)

"So how lame is this seminar going to be. I mean they're shape-shifters, not famous people." My friend Emily said as we walked into the theatre where the seminar was going to be held.

The room was circular with a stage in the middle surrounded by black cushioned chairs. The walls were wood with white paneling.

My senior class had a hundred students in it and that didn't come close to filling all the seats in the theatre. We followed Beth to a row of seats five rows up from the raised platform where the shape-shifters would be.

"Yeah, but I did hear that all the shape-shifter guys are super hot. And a lot of them here are going to be around our age. It had something to do with being closer to your audience or something." Beth said as we sat down.

It was the beginning of October and the days were starting to get chilly, although it was still nice fall weather in Portland, Maine.

Of course Beth would be thinking about the guys. She is a total and complete flirt. The second she spots a nice looking guy, she's already trying wrap him around her finger. It's not her fault; it's just the way she is.

Emily and I are more reserved. Mark has been Emily's long term boyfriend for almost a year now. And Frankly, Beth and I think they are perfect for each other.

I have had a few boyfriends over the years, but none ever stuck. I wasn't sure why, but I am pretty sure it was my fault not theirs.

Beth can get any guy she wants. She has the personality and the look. She has straight natural blonde hair that goes just past her shoulders. She is five seven and can be tan year round. She doesn't boast about her looks, but you can't hide the fact that she is gorgeous.

Emily is the more athletic one. While Beth does, baile, Emily plays soccer. I used to play soccer too, but I stopped after dad died. I still run a lot. At any chance I get really.

Emily has nutmeg brown hair that goes to the middle of her back. She doesn't like it because it is pin straight and annoys her all the time, but I think it fits her very well. Although not as tan as Beth, Emily is still not as pale as me. She's five five, with brown eyes to match her hair.

I am the odd ball of the group. Plain Jane if you want to call me that. I have wavy black hair that flows to my lower back. I am only five three, which I hate and tend to complain about every day. Which Beth and Emily continue to tell me that I do so.

My eyes are neither brown nor green. They're golden color that no one can quite figure out. Their unique and probably the only thing I like about myself.

Although my friends continue to tell me that I am very pretty, I still don't believe them. I am skinny. I don't try to be. I eat quite a lot for a girl my size, but I never seem to gain wait.

Most of the girls here are wearing jeans and sneakers. I was never really into the jeans and sneakers together. Sneakers are meant for running. And people don't usually run in jeans. I usually wear flip flops, but it was cold out today so I wore the Uggs I had gotten for Christmas last year.

Before I could comment on Beth's guy habits a guy in his early thirties stepped onto the stage. He was stunningly gorgeous. He had dirty blonde hair cut short and a fit body. Like he worked out in a gym everyday of the week.

Beth's mouth dropped open and Emily and I started laughing quietly. She whacked both of us on the arm.

"Hi everyone my name's James Sinclair and I'm here to let you know the facts about Shape-shifters. You have probably heard many rumors and some of them are probably true, but others are probably not. I am a shape-shifter myself…"

You are probably wondering why I am even here considering my father. I am here _because_ of that night. Ever since my dad died I have been trying to learn as much as I can about them.

I was hoping that maybe one day I would meet the shape-shifter that killed my father and make it suffer ten times worse than what it did to my father. I have quite a bit of knowledge about them now.

Although I haven't told a soul about my research, not even Seth. He was going to the state college, so that he could stay close to home. I tried to tell him that mom and I would be all right, but he wasn't buying it. And I was kind of glad.

"So why don't we play a game. Get into groups of three or four. You have your notebooks right?" A chorused yes filled the room.

"Okay good. So I'm going to ask you a series of question and you guys try to answer them correctly. The more you get right, the higher your score will go. At the end, the five highest scoring teams will get to meet and see one of us shift to our animal form."

Everyone started cheering. I was hoping I would stay as far away from them as I could get. No one knew the truth of what happened the night my father died, not even Beth and Emily.

They think a rabid dog killed him. The FBI told us that they would look into what happened, but I didn't believe them.

"How are we supposed to know about shape-shifters?" Beth sulked.

"Rumors?" I suggested.

"I guess." Beth said still sad. She really wants to meet one of them up close and we all know why.

"Come on guys we have to think positive. We can win." Emily said as she took her notebook and pen out of her bag.

"Okay first question. We'll start out easy. Can there be male and female shape shifters?"

Emily wrote yes after writing number one.

"Okay, what do most shape shifters change into?"

They usually changed into some form of big cat. "Isn't it a dog? Like some kind of werewolf?" Beth asked us.

"Oh yeah." Emily said. I didn't want to correct them, but it didn't seem fair to them not to.

"I heard that it was big cats that they change into." They looked over at me, and then thought it over for a moment.

"Yeah, Riley's probably right." Beth said and Emily quickly wrote my answer down.

"Okay. Here's another one. Can a shape shifter change at any given moment?"

Yes. "They probably can right?" Emily asked us.

I nodded as Beth joined in.

"Okay two more questions. The last is a bonus. If you get it right you automatically win. Okay here's the first one. Are you born a shape shifter or are you changed later?"

You are changed later, by being bit, but you have to have the same blood type as the shape shifter who is biting you.

"You are so born being a shape shifter." Emily said. I didn't correct her. Getting one wrong, shouldn't stop us from getting a high enough score.

"Yeah. I haven't heard of anyone being bitten before." Beth added.

"All right here's the last question. You get this right you automatically win. What is the rarest breed a shape shifter can change to? You know what, how about you each choose someone to stand up and say it. I'll give you a moment to decide as I bring all my other friends out to join me." He left through a side door.

"Riley you do it. You got most of the answers for us anyways." No way.

"Beth you should do it. All attention would be focused on you. All those hot shape shifter guys eyes on you." Beth thought about and I rolled my eyes to Emily who was trying to hold in her laugh.

"Fine. Okay I'll do it." Beth said.

"What's our answer?" Emily asked. I knew the answer. But should I tell them? They'd wonder how I knew it.

"Just say what you think it is when you stand up or whatever pops up into your mind first." I said to Beth, who then nodded.

We turned back to the stage as James came back on stage with about ten other people. Four were girls and six were guys.

And boy was Beth right. They were gorgeous, beyond gorgeous. Ephemeral is what I would call them. They had perfect forms. Their faces seemed to be chiseled from stone into gods and goddesses. They were all the same, yet different.

I could tell one from the other. Some had blonde hair, while others had black or brown. Two even had red hair. A girl and a guy. They looked like they were twins.

"Oh my gosh. All my dreams just came true." Beth said.

Emily gasped, "They're all so hot. Not fair." Emily said.

I stared down at them trying not to catch their eyes, afraid of what I would see in them.

"Okay do you guys have the answer to the last question!?" James said in an energetic voice. We all screamed and applauded.

"Okay. Let's start over here." He pointed to a group on the opposite side of ours.

Every one of the shape shifters seemed to turn their gaze to the guy giving an answer. The guy said a cheetah.

Not even close.

A few of the shape shifter guys tried to hide their smiles as more wrong answers filled the air.

It's as if they all expected no one to get it…ever.

It was the group next to ours turn. They of course had no clue and shouted out a Lion. But it came out sounding like a question.

James shook his head.

"Nope sorry wrong answer." Every eye then turned to our group.

Beth stood up. "Umm." They looked so arrogant. They didn't think anyone in the world would guess such a simple answer. Too many people thought the rarest breed, would truly be a rare kind of big cat, when it really wasn't.

I wanted to show them. I wanted to make them realize not everyone in the world is completely clueless to what they are.

"It's a…" I quickly stood up and grabbed Beth's arm. I whispered in her ear and then quickly sat back down.

She looked back over at me. "Really?" She whispered to me.

I nodded.

"It's a white tiger." She said confidently. I looked down and saw the shocked faces of every one of the shape shifters.

Then they all turned their eyes and looked directly at me. I stared back. Some of them seemed angry, while other's looked at me curiously. I didn't want to catch any of their eyes, so I darted my gaze around, when all of a sudden I had locked gazes with one of the guys.

He had the greenest eyes I had ever seen. They seemed to smolder. He had curly brown hair that was grown out a little, but not that short. He was tan and was wearing a white t-shirt and loose jeans that hung on his hips like they were made just for him.

He was beautiful, gorgeous, magnificent, just a few words that popped into my head when we locked gazes.

He smiled teasingly up at me and I lost my breath.

James's voice jerked my gaze away from the ultimate staring contest I had just been having. That had to be the most intense staring contest I've ever had.

"Well you girls have just won. Congratulations." He said, plastering a smile on his face. It seemed forced to me.

Everyone started clapping and asking us how we knew the answer. And of course Beth and Emily just looked to me for an answer.

"Just a good guess." I laughed. Pretending it was by mistake that we got it right. We turned back as James began to speak.

"So for the five groups that have the highest scores please follow me in the back and the rest of you, don't worry you still get to see my friend Jim here, shift. Just not as up close as the ones who won."

One of the girl shifters herded us through a door and into a classroom sized room. It was bare except for fifteen chairs in a semi-circle.

We sat down and waited to see what would happen.

"So great job guys. I'm going to go back out there while Adria and Michael take over here. Have fun kids." James said as he walked back through the door we all came through.

The girl with the straight red hair and the boy with the curly red hair stepped forward.

"Hi guys. I'm Adria and this is my twin brother Michael." Michael waved.

He had a cute boyish looked that suited him. Michael was tall and not as muscular as the other guys, but he wasn't lacking either.

Andria was also tall probably five nine or so. She was stunningly beautiful. They both had light blue eyes that seemed to fit their exotic look.

"The other two guys standing over there are Jonathan and Dane." She pointed to my right. I looked over and was met with another penetrating stare from the guy who had stolen my breath only minutes ago.

"How did you know that a white tiger was the rarest breed that a shape shifter can change to?" He said raising a brow.

Shoot. He had to ask directly. With everyone looking at me. He did that on purpose. Damn him. Well he definitely wasn't going to get the answer he wanted. Two can play this game.

"Lucky guess." I shrugged as if it was nothing.

His smile grew deadly. "You must be one lucky girl." I returned an innocent smile as if I had no clue what he meant.

"Okay then." Andria said. Bringing the crowd back to face her and Michael.

It took me a few seconds longer to take my gaze from his face. It was as if he could see the truth as if it was written on my shirt.

"So who wants to see me shift?" Michael asked.

Everyone started cheering and yelling yes enthusiastically. I didn't know if I was ready for this. I hadn't seen another shape shifter in its animal form since the night when the lion killed my father.

Could I handle it? I didn't know and I wasn't sure if I was ready to find out.

I put my hands on either side of my chair in a death grip. Praying it was going to be okay. Emily seemed to notice my agitated state and whispered to me, "Are you okay?" She had a confused look on her face.

I gave her a reassuring smile, although I don't think it reached my eyes. "Yeah I'm fine." I looked over to see if Dane had noticed. He was staring at me with an equally confused look on his face.

I quickly jerked my gaze back to Michael.

One minute he was standing there in the middle of the room and in the next he had turned into a black panther. He was standing on all fours looking at us. He probably came to just above my hip.

He was beautiful, but that was before I looked into his eyes. They were exactly the same as the lion I had seen six months ago. It was then that I started to panic. They just looked so familiar.

Adria was saying something, but all I could hear was the lion's roar as he took my father's life.

"Make him change back." I whispered to no one in particular. They continued to stare at Michael as he walked around in front of us. My hands were glued to the sides of my chair. I think I had stopped breathing. My chest felt tight.

Michael seemed to notice my state because he quickly changed back and went to stand next to his sister staring at me as if I had been the one to shift, not him.

I stood up and mumbled that I had to use the bathroom. Of course the door was right next to where Dane and Jonathan were standing. "Excuse me." I said not looking up.

Jonathan quickly moved out of the way, but Dane stayed where he was, blocking most of the door.

"I have to go to the bathroom, so could you please move." I said in an irritated tone.

I didn't know how much longer I could last in the room. I'm pretty sure Adria just shifted, but I was too scared to look back.

I finally had had enough and looked up. I caught my breath at what I saw in Dane's eyes.

"Why are you scared?" They seemed to be filled with anger, but I don't think it was directed at me, but I wasn't sure at what.

I tried to act normal. "I'm not scared. I have to pee. Now move." I said trying to push him aside. It was like trying to move a wall.

"What happened?" I shot him a look. "I don't know what you're talking about." He gave me that teasing smile again.

"What's your name?"

I was about to answer him when he said, "Oh wait let me guess. Is it Lucky by any chance?" He asked with a lift of his brow, that teasing smile still on his face.

"No it's actually horseshoe. My parents loved their horses. Oh and my middle name is mirrors of course. Oh and wait until you hear my last name, it's the best." I said in the most innocent voice I could manage.

He seemed to stare at me for a few more seconds, then stepped aside and let me pass.

I was in there for a good ten minutes. I didn't want to go back out there. The memories continued to flood my mind and all I wanted to do was go home and pretend this day never happened.

This was the worst field trip ever.

******** Please review and tell me what you think! Bad or good? Doesn't matter all comments are great. Thanks! ********


	3. Chapter 2: Lucky

Chapter 2: Lucky

It was the end of the week and everyone at school was still talking about the shape shifters and what everyone got to see.

They bragged to the underclassman and of course over exaggerated many things. This was expected, we're still teenagers.

The bell signaling the end of school had just rung and I was heading out of the school to the senior parking lot where Seth said he would pick me up.

I have my own car, but Seth and I always go out to eat every Friday after school. We usually just go to Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks. He usually gets a coffee, while I get a hot chocolate. I'm not a coffee girl at all.

I looked around trying to spot Seth's old and beat up jeep Cherokee. I spotted it coming towards me. He waved and stopped in front of me. I quickly hopped in and threw my bag in the back seat.

"Hey you. Ready to go." It was more of a statement than a question.

"So Dunkin Donuts?" I asked him as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"Dunkin Donuts it is." He smiled and headed for the one only five minutes away from school.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around most of the week. My English teacher is making us do a fifteen page report due in two weeks." Seth grimaced.

I laughed and asked, "And when was the assignment assigned?"

He looked out his window, trying not to look at me. "A month and a half ago." I knew it. He was the worst procrastinator I had ever met.

"Seth! Are you even going to get it done in time!? Of course you would do something like this." I sighed loudly at him.

"Hey! Look who's talking. Who got detention last week because they didn't finish their math homework two days in a row?"

Okay so he had me there. It wasn't my fault though my math teacher, Mrs. Mathews, was the worst teacher in the history of worst teachers. If that made sense. She was horrible and mean.

"That's not my fault. She's mean and I think she hates me, but I don't know what I did!" Seth laughed as he pulled into Dunkin Donuts.

He parked and we headed inside. Seth said he'd order for me so I sat down in one of the booths.

He came back and handed me my hot chocolate…yumm.

"So mom told me you ended up going on that field trip for school. Where'd you go anyways?" Mom and I had decided we wouldn't tell Seth that the field trip was a shape shifter seminar.

He got pissed whenever we brought anything remotely close to them up in a conversation. And for me to be that close to shape shifters Seth wouldn't have let me go.

I wanted to go. I wanted to learn more about them, so that one day I could find that lion and kill him. I never use to be violent, but after that night a lot of things changed.

"Oh umm it was just this boring seminar. You know how they are." I shrugged as if there was nothing really to tell about it.

"A seminar about what?" He asked curiously. He liked to stay informed about my life, sometimes I liked it, other times, like now, I hated it.

"You can't freak out when I tell you, okay?" I looked at him warily.

His smile became a frown. "Ry…"

I looked down at my hot chocolate Styrofoam cup as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

"It was a shape shifter seminar." I whispered.

No sound came from the opposite side of our booth. It sounded like Seth wasn't even there anymore. I quickly looked up to make sure he was.

He was staring at me as if I was a shape shifter. The anger in his eyes was so strong I quickly looked away.

"How could you?" I flinched as if the words had stung me. They were filled with such sadness.

"I'm sorry Seth. I'm so sorry. They didn't hurt me, I swear. We didn't even get to go up close to them."

A little lie wouldn't hurt right now.

Seth's jaw was clenched. He was staring out of the window next to us. It seemed like forever before he spoke again.

"I can't lose you too." He continued to stare through the window. It was now that the guilt kicked in.

And I wished I had never gone to the seminar. I wish I could take that day back and erase it from my life, but I couldn't. Just like I couldn't erase the day my father died.

Before I could say anything to him, to ease his mind that something like that would never happen again, a commotion came from the entrance of Dunkin Donuts.

I looked over to see what was going on and it was then that I spotted Adria, Michael, Jonathan, and Dane walking in. Laughing at some joke one of them had just made, I think.

I jerked my head back to Seth to see if he knew, but of course he wouldn't know because he hadn't gone to the seminar. My racing heart slowed a little, but not much.

"Wanna get out of here?" I asked, trying to sound casual. He nodded just as his cell phone rang. He grabbed it out of his jeans pocket and looked to see who was calling.

He looked back up to me with an apologetic smile, "I have to take this. Meet you at the car?" I nodded and headed quickly towards the exit, staying as far away from Dane as I could.

Ever since the seminar and the brief conversation, well I guess you would call it an argument, he and I had had at the seminar I couldn't stop thinking about him.

The way his teasing smile lit up his eyes. His domineering stance, as if he owned the world, not the other way around.

And then the anger that he had shown when I was trying to escape the room. The expression would be forever sketched in my mind.

As I walked out onto the sidewalk someone called my name from the parking lot.

"Hey Riley!" I looked up to see Hannah from my English class wave as she got out of her car.

"Hi Hannah." I said waving back. As I did this I didn't notice a black SUV speeding out of the drive through, heading straight for me.

Hannah must have screamed for me to get out of the way, but her warning was a second too late.

I saw the car out of the corner of my eye and tried to run back to the sidewalk.

As I jumped the last few feet, the car clipped my right side, making me fall onto the hard cement.

I think I blacked out for a moment or two because the next thing I know three people are standing over me. Hannah with a worried look on her face, ringing her hands together.

The man who must have been driving the SUV. I knew this because he kept on saying, "I'm so sorry. I didn't see her. I didn't see her."

And the third person was a surprise to me. It was Dane. He was kneeling over me. His eyes looked wild and, if I didn't know any better, I'd say there was fear in his eyes. Why would he be afraid?

I finally came to my senses and tried to sit up.

Before I could get my shoulders off the ground, Dane was gently pushing me back down. "Easy sweetheart. Don't try to move yet."

I ignored him calling me sweetheart only because the pain in my side was excruciating. I rolled my head to see where Seth was, needing him badly.

As if on cue, Seth came sprinting out of Dunkin Donuts and to where I was laying.

"Riley. Riley are you okay? What the hell happened!?" He looked around frantically until he heard the words the driver was saying. It was still, "I didn't see her."

He got up and started yelling at the forty-something year old driver.

"Seth. Seth stop." I tried to get his attention, but it didn't seem to be working.

I looked back at Dane who was still by my side. "Help me up." I asked giving him my hand.

He looked down at me with a determined gaze. "No."

I gave him a death stare and then pulled myself up into a sitting position, swatting Dane's hand away as he tried to push me back down. Seth was still going off on the poor driver.

I had no other choice, "SETH!" I screamed. Then I moaned from the pain that shot through my chest.

Dane tensed beside me, but I ignored it as Seth finally came to kneel beside me.

"Riley. What hurts?" He looked me over trying to see what was wrong.

"I'm fine I just want to go home. Help me up." I said grabbing for his hand, but he quickly pulled it away.

"No. We don't know how badly hurt you are. The ambulance is on its way. Just stay put for now." Are all men this overprotective?

I sighed and looked up at Hannah to see if she would help me. "Hannah can you help me get up." She looked from Seth to Dane and back to me. "I'm sorry Riley, but…" She gave me an apologetic shrug.

"Uggh." I groaned from the pain and the two idiots beside me.

"You're one of the guys from the seminar, right?" Hannah asked Dane, trying to change the subject or get all of us to think of something else for a few minutes.

Little did she know that it would do more than distract us for a few minutes.

Dane looked up with a breath taking smile on his face and said, "Yeah." And all hell broke loose.

"You're one of them?" Seth said in a deadly quiet voice.

Dane looked over at Seth. They were now trying to stare each other down.

"Got a problem with that?" Dane asked back.

Seth stood up and so did Dane. "Get the fuck away from my sister!"

Dane looked incredulous. "Excuse me?"

Seth stared back at him. "You heard me. Get away from her, now." It was silent as no one so much as breathed.

Before I could intervene the sound of the ambulance broke the silence and it quickly stopped in the parking lot.

"Seth. I don't want to go in an ambulance. I'm fine. Just a few bruises. I'll be fine. Just take me home." I pleaded with him. Putting the little girl sad face I always did when I wanted something from him.

He looked from me to the ambulance then back again.

Before Seth could move to go talk to the EMT guy so I wouldn't have to go in the ambulance, Dane was walking over and speaking to him. After a few minutes, they both came over.

I was now standing, Seth's arm wrapped around my shoulder helping me stand.

"You are one lucky girl. You could have been killed." The EMT guy said. "Are you sure you are all right?"

I nodded. "All right then. If anything does start to hurt please go to the emergency room." With that he walked back to the ambulance.

Seth was glaring at Dane. I looked up and Dane caught my eye. "Lucky describes her perfectly." With that he was gone. Walking towards his car where Adria, Michael and Jonathon waited.

"What did he mean by that?" Seth asked as he helped me walk to his car and get in the passenger seat.

As we headed home I whispered into the silence, "I have no idea." Inside it was an entirely different story.


	4. Chapter 3: Thanks, Dane thanks

Chapter 3: Thanks, Dane… thanks

I ended up staying home the rest of the week. My side killed and Seth and my mom had dragged me to the doctors to find out that I had three bruised ribs and a mild concussion.

It was thankfully Christmas break and we get two weeks off every year. It was Saturday a week before Christmas and Emily, Beth, and I were going into town to buy Christmas presents for everyone.

We had just parked in the Highland outlet and were heading to our first store, a small boutique shop where we thought we would find some things for our mothers.

Highland outlet was a pretty big shopping center. It had every store imaginable. It was only about fifteen minutes from my house so my friends and I came here a lot.

"Okay so my mom kept on saying that she didn't want anything for Christmas, but that is such a lie.

Everyone wants a gift for Christmas right?" Beth asked as we walked in the store.

"Yeah. My mom said the same thing. She was like, I just want everyone to be happy and love each other, but I know she wants a scarf and her favorite perfume." Emily said as we started looking around the tiny store.

There were tiny trinkets and glass figurines, china sets and unique hand bags. I walked over to look at the hand bags and saw a white one with a silver buckle on it that I know my mother would love.

I had been saving up my money and now had enough to buy my mom and Seth something, along with enough left over to get myself something as well.

I don't usually save my money, so this was a rare treat for me. We exited the store. Emily with a scarf for her mom, me with the perfect hand bag, and Beth still waiting to find something for her mom.

I had no clue what to get Seth. He always seemed to fine something special for me. A necklace, a bracelet, but I could never find him the right gift. This year would be different; at least I hoped I could find something special for him.

It was two thirty and I still hadn't found a gift for Seth. Emily and Beth had found pretty much everything for their families, except Beth still hadn't found a gift for her mother.

"Oooh Bath and Body Works, maybe you could find something for your mom in there." Emily pointed to the store to our left.

I nodded in agreement. I looked around and spotted another store to our right. It was a small ski and snowboarding store and I had finally found the perfect gift for him.

Seth loved to snowboard. He loved winter. It was his favorite time of year. I was never too fond of any winter sports although Seth tried to convince me to come with him when he went on snowboarding trips. I still have never gone.

I entered the store looked around for a new snowboard for him. I didn't know which ones were for amateurs and which ones were for advanced people like my brother. I started biting my lip like I usually did when I was trying to make a decision.

Someone's voice broke my concentration. "You don't snowboard, do you?" I turned around and came face to face, well face to chest because he was so tall, with Dane.

I looked up and met his gaze. It was smoldering, just like I remembered it. Green eyes shining with intensity as he looked down at me.

"No. How'd you know?" He gave me a teasing smile.

"Lucky guess." Was he ever going to let that go?

"Don't look too smug or your face might be stuck like that." I retorted back. He laughed again and then turned back to the rack of snowboards.

"So then why are you looking at snowboards?" He asked me.

"I'm getting my brother one as his Christmas gift. I just don't know which one to get him. They all look the same to me." He chuckled.

"If he's any good, you should probably get him this one," He pointed to a black one with cool red and yellow lettering on it. "And this one if he's a beginner." He pointed to a white and blue one.

He turned back to me. "Your brother wouldn't happen to be the guy who told me to get away from you, was he?" I looked away from him. I didn't want to tell him why my brother had flipped out that day, at all.

"Umm, yeah. Sorry about that. He's a little over protective sometimes. You know how older brothers can be."

He raised his eyebrow, but didn't comment further.

I reached up to get the black snowboard, but as I almost reached it a sharp pain shot through my bruised ribs. They were still healing and they were very annoying. I hissed in pain and quickly dropped my arms.

"Are you all right?" Dane asked with worry in his eyes.

"Yeah, my bruised ribs just don't want to heal at a normal rate." He gave a small smile and easily got the black snowboard down, off its rack.

"Thanks." I said reaching to take it from his hands.

"Nope. I'm carrying it. What else do you need to get?" Uggh I wanted to smack him. I'm not dead, I can still function.

"Fine. That's all." We walked to the checkout line that had become quite long.

What was he even doing in a snowboard store in the first place?

I voiced my question.

"I snowboard too. Actually I love the snow. The best season is definitely winter." He said with a happy look on his face.

"Wow. You and my brother would probably get along great if you weren't…" I cut off my words forgetting who, well what he was, and how I didn't want Dane to find out about my past.

"If I wasn't a shape shifter. Yeah a lot of people feel that way. What I don't get is why he seemed so pissed. Most people who hate us are scared of us. He looked like he wanted to kill me. And let me tell you that is one hard thing to do."

He said with a cocky grin on his face as we moved a few steps up in line.

"Yeah I just bet it would take a lot to kill you, a lot more effort than killing a human." I whispered, not looking at him.

"Riley…I…" Dane was cut off by the sales receptionist's voice. "Excuse me. Next." We both jerked our heads up and quickly moved to the checkout counter.

"Is that all?" The guy around our age asked. He had black hair and dark brown eyes. He had piercings just about everywhere and was wearing all black, even his finger nails were painted with black nail polish.

"Do you have any season passes to Skyline Mountain?" The guy looked in the drawer below the counter.

"Yup. You can get your own or we have a couple's pass, which gives you a pretty sweet discount." He looked from me to Dane.

"Oh we're not…" Dane cut in. "We'll take them. Thanks." He gave the guy an easy smile.

I elbowed him in the ribs as the guy rang up the snowboard and passes.

He looked down at me with a fake expression of pain on his face. "Ouch, what was that for?"

I rolled my eyes, as if he didn't know.

The guy handed me the passes and gave Dane the board. We exited the store and I turned to him. Making us stop in the middle of the mall.

He held up his hand before I could say anything.

"It was cheaper to buy the couples passes. You should be thanking me, not yelling at me and jabbing me in the ribs that hurt."

I gave a false laugh. "Yeah right. Mr. Indestructible. Mr. It takes a lot to kill me. Anyways thank you for carrying the snowboard, but I think I can take it from here. My friends are probably searching for me so I have to go." He handed me the board and started backing away hands in his front pockets.

I wouldn't admit it, but it made him look extra sexy.

"Then I guess I'll see you later."

Later? When would I see him later? He was going to seminars and stuff why would we see each other?

"What do you mean later?" He gave me a teasing smile.

"A group of us go up to Skyline Mountain every year." With that he turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

He was right there when I was buying tickets and he didn't even say anything. If Seth sees him or any of them for that matter, who knows what will happen.

It definitely would be a disaster and I would be caught in the middle of it.

Thanks, Dane… thanks

He may think he's indestructible…

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Christmas came and went. Every Christmas was hard on us. Without dad there it just wasn't the same.

That's why we never made a big deal of it. We bought each other presents and Seth and I usually did something special for mom to cheer her up.

Dad had always been a big fan of Christmas and the fun holidays so we always tried to make it easier on mom. Mom had gotten better over the years and Seth and I were thankful that she pulled through this Christmas.

Mom said she was going to go spend some time in New Hampshire with her sister, so Seth and I were free to go to the Skyline Mountain resort, which Seth was extremely excited about.

I, on the other hand, didn't know what to think or feel about the week-long trip we were embarking on.

"Hey so the slopes are open from eight o clock in the morning to eleven o clock at night. Pretty sweet right? They have lights and everything for when it gets dark. This is so awesome." Seth said to me as we walked out of the elevator and towards our rooms.

We stopped at my door, "Okay so I guess since we already had dinner. We should just relax and check the place out?" I asked Seth.

I was pretty tired, but the place was so cool and I heard that there was a huge hot tub and pool located somewhere and I was determined to find it.

"Yeah. Sounds good. So Mike and Ryan called and said they were here about an hour ago. Would you mind if I went to the bar and hung out with them?"

He needed to take a chill pill on the whole older brother thing.

"Seth, I'm seventeen… not seven. I think I can handle being without you for a few hours. Stay out all night if you want to. I don't care." He gave me a concerned look.

"I'll be fine. Now go have fun." I pushed him away from my door and slid the key in. I watched him walk towards his room at the end of the hallway then I shut my door and threw my bag onto the king sized bed in the middle of the room.

My hotel room was like any other five star hotel room. TV and video game set up, a kitchen that included a mini fridge, a gigantic bathroom complete with a Jacuzzi and a shower that took up half the bathroom.

And best of all there were chocolates laid out on my pillow. Every hotel needs to do this if you ask me.

I decided to put on my bathing suit and white cover up that Beth had gotten me. It was a little too small on me, but Beth said it was supposed to be that way, but let's think about that for a minute.

Beth equals guy obsessed. So "it's supposed to be that short", probably means it's not supposed to be that way.

I headed to the first floor because most pools were located there. I entered the lobby and walked down another hallway. Each hallway was the same on every floor.

White walls with all different kinds of pictures of the wilderness that surrounded the resort and brown carpeted floors.

I looked to the end of the hallway and saw the gigantic pool through the glass windows and I could just make out the equally large hot tub that was steaming with hot water.

I looked to my right and spotted the fitness room with only a few people in it.

I looked to my left into another room that had big glass windows. I came to a complete stop at what I saw.

There were at least ten people in the room, but one stood out from all the rest. The four girls in the room were sitting down at a table to the left that had pizza and soda at it.

Two other guys were standing near them. Stuffing as much pizza as they could into their mouths as possible.

The four other guys were standing around a pool table. It looked like the game had just started because most of the balls were still on the table.

Dane was watching as another guy took his turn and I realized it was Jonathan hitting the ball.

Dane was wearing loose light wash jeans that had a few holes in them and a navy blue t-shirt that seemed to hug his upper body quite nicely. I couldn't help, but stare at his perfect form.

I was brought out of my reverie when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see a guy in his early twenties with dark brown hair and brown eyes glazed over. He must be drunk I thought to myself.

"Heythere pretty gurrrl." His words slurred together as he looked down at me. Why does trouble always seem to find me?

"Hi. I have to go." I said to him hoping he would get the message, but I doubt he would. I tried to step around him, but he grabbed my arm before I could react.

I tried to get out of his grip, but he squeezed my arm tighter and I let out a small whimper of pain.

He turned me so I was pinned against the glass windows. "Don't leave. We weeere about tohave sommme funn." A creepy smile came across his face.

Before I could try to get away from him he was flying across the hallway and hitting the wall with a loud crack that filled the silence.

I looked up and saw Dane standing in front of me. "Hi again." Was all that I could think of to say.

He put his hands on his hips and he seemed to be shaking with anger. His eyes were roaming over me and then I remembered what I was wearing.

"I was going to the pool, but…" I let my sentence die. Hoping he didn't get what I was about to say to him. That I had stopped walking because I saw him.

That would just make his ego become even bigger than it already was. The drunken guy had finally stood up and was trying to walk down the hallway in the opposite direction.

He stumbled and tripped every few feet. It was quite comical actually. I was chuckling when I turned back to Dane.

He still had a frown on his face and my smile quickly faded. He was ruining my good mood.

"Stop looking at me like that! Don't blame this on me. It wasn't my fault he tried to…to molest me." I said wondering if that was really what the drunken guy had been trying to do.

Before Dane could say anything I looked behind him and spotted Jonathan in the door way. "Hi Jonathan." I waved to him.

He had been looking at the back of Dane's head, but focused on me when I said his name.

"Hey. I remembered you. You're the lucky girl who guessed the secret question right." He moved to stand next to Dane.

"Secret question?" I asked, confused. Jonathan chuckled. "Well I guess it's not a secret anymore. We used to call it that because no one could figure it out." Except me.

I looked back at Dane, but he seemed to be looking through me. Maybe I could get some information from them. It was as good a time as any to ask.

"So do you guys know where the white tiger is? Since he's so unique or whatever people think."

Jonathan and Dane seemed to share an inside joke, while I stood there without a clue.

"Nope. It's a mystery to us all." Jonathan said.

"You don't think he's unique or special?" Dane asked looking directly at me. His question was said as a challenge and I wondered why.

"Not really. I mean you're all really different and obviously not human, but I just don't think of you guys as a whole as that great and awesome. No offense intended. That's just my opinion.

There are millions of people out there that can't get enough of you." I said with disgust in my voice at the last part.

I would never think of them as safe and welcoming not after what I had witnesses a year ago.

Jonathan's smile had seemed to disappear at my words and Dane's face had gone completely blank of any emotion.

"Sorry to burst your bubbles, but not everyone adores you guys." Jonathan laughed lightly, but Dane stayed silent.

Someone called Jonathan's name and he said goodbye, then headed back into the game room. I looked down the hallway for a few minutes then turned to look back at Dane only to find him inches away from me. Closer than he had ever came before.

He put his right hand under my chin making me look up into his eyes. "Why do you hate us?" I began to shake my head, but he stopped my protest.

"Don't lie to me Riley." My name on his lips was heaven to my ears. It sent shivers down my back.

"I…" Before I could say anything someone called my name from down the hallway. I turned to see Ryan waving to me.

That meant Seth was probably going to come out of the bar right about now. If on cue Seth stepped around the corner and into my view.

This meant he could see Dane…and me… together.

I apologized to Dane for what I was about to do. "Sorry." I gave him an apologetic look before I shoved him as hard as I could back into the game room.

Then I was flying back down the hallway, hoping Seth hadn't noticed who I had been talking to.

I met him at the elevators and rode up to our floor with him and his friends. Mike and Ryan knew me from what Seth told them about me. They said a friendly hello, but that was about it.

Mike and Ryan were on a floor above us. Seth walked me to my door and said good night. Then walked towards his room.

So he must not have noticed. Thank God for that. That was a close call. So much for sitting in the warm hot tub and having a relaxing evening.

Ever since I met Dane things had been anything, but boring. And the problem was I kind of liked the danger in it all.

My mind said that was a bad thing, but my heart seemed to have other ideas.


	5. Chapter 4: The White Tiger

Chapter 4: The White Tiger

I have never been an early riser, so the hotel phone that went off at eight o clock in the morning was lucky to not have been smashed against the wall.

It ended up being Seth saying that I had half an hour to get down to the lobby. Apparently he couldn't wait to get on the slopes, although I don't know how much snowboarding he would get to do while I was there.

I've only ever snowboarded once when Seth tried to teach me. I had only been seven and let's just say I haven't snowboarded since.

I quickly got dressed in my warm snow pants and winter jacket. My mom had gotten it for me a year ago saying I looked best in navy blue.

I loved any shade of blue, so for once I actually wanted to wear something that my mother had picked out for me.

I absolutely hate snow pants. Anyone can probably relate to me when I say they're bulky and hard to walk in.

That's why Seth found these great white snow pants that are made of this really thin material.

Being a winter sport expert he could find just about anything you needed for the season.

It was just another reason why I loved him.

I headed down to the lobby, only five minutes late. That was a record setting time. I'm usually at least a half hour late to everything. I just never learned how time management worked.

I spotted Seth near the back entrance that led to the slopes. He was wearing black snow pants and a forest green jacket. He was holding two snow boards under his arm as I came up to him.

"Hey Ry, you ready?" He asked with a smile.

"Lead the way." I replied as we walked out the doors and onto the snow. It was a perfect day out.

There were no clouds and the sun was casting warm rays of light down on us to keep the cold away.

We walked over to the bottom of what Seth would consider a miniature slope, which to me would mean really big slope, and set our boards down.

"Okay. So let's get on our boards and then I'll try to teach you how to snowboard!" He said it so enthusiastically I couldn't help, but laugh and smile at the goofy face he was making.

I locked my shoes in the shoe holders on my board and then waited for Seth to tell me what to do.

"Okay so turn to your right and just let yourself glide over the snow. Like this." I watched as Seth jumped a little to get himself moving and then started gliding across the snow.

He looked like he wasn't even trying, which was probably true.

I turned so I would move towards him and tried to go forward. We were on a small hill, well you couldn't really call it a hill, but to me it was.

I finally started moving and slowly glided over to Seth. Seth stopped me before I went passed him and said, "Nice job. That wasn't so bad now was it?"

I shook my head, "Nope not bad at all. Let's go faster!" I don't know what had gotten into me lately, but I was ready to try something new for a change.

"Are you sure?" Seth looked down at me skeptically.

"Yes, let's go!" I said and tried to start moving towards the pull line that would take us up the big, okay small hill.

We reached the top and I looked down at all the other people below us. There weren't that many out this early, but quite a few were hanging out where we were and down below.

"Okay so we'll go at the same time. Just remember. Bend your legs and keep you board angled down. Got it?" He looked over at me.

"Bend legs. Board down. Got it." I replied with a smile of excitement. This shouldn't be too hard, I can do this.

"On three. One…Two…Three." With that I pushed forward and we were sliding down the slope.

At first we were going slowly, but then we started picking up speed. Seth let go of my hand, which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do.

I was going pretty fast now and I was headed right for the people still standing at the bottom. Word to the wise… the bottom of a hill, covered with snow, with people going down it, not a great place to be.

Seth had forgotten the one important detail. How to stop.

"How do I stop!" I yelled over to him, but he must have not been able to hear me because he just kept on coasting down the hill.

This was a disaster. A group of people had their backs to me. I tried to warn them before they were taken down by me and my inability to stop.

"Watch out! Sorry!" I screamed as one guy jumped out of the way and then I was headed straight into Dane, of all people.

We locked gazes. He seemed to be shocked, while I was freaking out still flying towards him.

I tried to turn so I wouldn't hit him. I closed my eyes afraid of what would happen next. I felt someone grab me around the waist and then I was flying through the air.

I let out a small yelp of surprise, before I was safely standing on the ground, fully stopped.

I finally got my wits back to at least look up at Dane who still had his hands on my hips.

"That's twice now you've nearly knocked me over." He said with a teasing smile on his lips.

"Well this one wasn't meant. I don't know how to brake on this thing. My brother kind of forgot that important detail." I looked around me to try and find where my brother had ended up.

I spotted him a few yards away trying to find me. I looked back at Dane and said, "I have to go. Thanks for stopping me. I owe you one." I tried to move away from him, but his hands tightened on my hips.

"Do you hate me for what I am?" He looked directly at me. I quickly hid my face from him. I didn't know what to say.

A shape shifter had killed my father, but he wasn't the tiger who had done it. Still… could I trust him?

Would I allow myself to actually get close to the thing I had sworn I would hate my entire life?

"I have to go." I whispered into the air. His hands fell from my waist and I quickly unstrapped my feet from the snowboard and walked away with it under my arm.

I didn't look back, afraid of what I would see in Dane's eyes. Seth had his back to me, so I called out his name. He turned around, saw me, waved, and then came over.

"Hey are you okay? Where'd you run off to?" Well wasn't that a good question.

"I had a little trouble stopping, but this nice guy helped me out." I absently pointed my finger in a random direction.

Seth nodded. "Oh yeah sorry about that. I forgot to tell you how to stop." He grimaced down at me.

"No kidding." I retorted back. Teasing him, but he deserved it.

"I think I've had enough snowboarding for one day. Wanna head inside and get something to eat?" I was starving. Seth's stomach grumbled as we turned to go inside. That was definitely a yes.

As we walked through the doors I looked back to see if Dane was still there, but all I saw was an empty space where he should have been.

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Seth and I spent the rest of the day swimming in the pool and playing the many games located in the resorts living room. The resort was shaped like a log cabin and had the feel of home to it.

It was now eleven at night and I was listening to my iPod, while sitting on a little bench that was connected to the clear window that looked out at the snow slopes and forest that surrounded it.

For some reason I couldn't sleep, even though I wasn't thinking about much. I looked up at the night sky and hundreds stars and the bright moon. It was a half moon at the moment.

I brought my gaze back down to the snow and it was then that I spotted a group of ten people walking through the snow towards the forest right by the slopes.

I spotted two red heads and I needed no more clues to guess who the rest of the people were.

Dane was pushing, I think Jonathan, into the snow and then laughing at something someone else said.

Why would they be going into the forest at midnight? Well almost midnight. Yeah they were shape shifters, but even shape shifters have somewhat normal lives… right?

I sat there watching as they continued to move silently and swiftly towards the trees. Should I go see what there up to?

Maybe they're meeting other shape shifters, which could then lead me to the tiger that killed my father.

But there are probably so many dangerous things out there. Plus it was dark outside, I hated the dark.

"You have to do this. For your father." My mind told me. And it was right. I was going whether I wanted to or not.

I quickly threw on a pair of jeans, my winter jacket, and my winter boots. I ran to the elevators and was soon walking out the back entrance and to where I had last seen Dane and his group.

I tried to be quiet as I trudged through the snow. It was probably five minutes before I reached the tree line.

I continued to walk through the dark woods for about ten or fifteen minutes before I heard any noise other than my heavy breathing and the crunch of snow beneath my feet.

There was laughter and someone else said something that made everyone start laughing more.

I stopped where I was and tried to spot where they were. I turned to my left and spotted all of them in a small clearing.

Some were standing, while others were leaning against the trees. I could finally make out what they were saying.

"That's not even plausible. No one out of the pack would do that. It had to be someone else. A rogue or something."

That was said by Michael who was leaning against a far tree, across from where I was behind another tree.

"Well we have to figure this out before more innocent people get hurt." That was said by a guy with pitch black hair and eyes so blue they seemed to be the color of the sky on a perfectly clear day.

He looked to be in his early twenties, as were most of the shape shifters in this group, pack, as they called it.

"Do we even know what kind of shifter it is?" Adria asked from her spot next to Michael, they seemed to be inseparable.

"The last time he killed was in Portland, Maine." Menace dripped from Dane's words. I stifled a gasp as his words registered in my head.

They were talking about the shape shifter that killed my father.

"And no. No one seems to know what kind of cat he is." Dane added.

"Man this sucks." Michael said, kicking the snow under his feet. So they were trying to catch the one who had killed my father too. I couldn't decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Maybe if we shift we can listen to any shifter that's close by." Jonathan said as he stepped forward. Dane followed him into the middle of the small clearing.

"You two can stay here and see if any other shifter's can help us out. I'm going for a run anybody else wanna come?" The guy with the sky blue eyes asked.

Everyone started getting excited and the laughing and teasing began as they all moved into the forest, thankfully away from me.

It was now just Jonathan and Dane standing next to each other. "Let's do this." Jonathan said with an excited smile. Dane nodded. They were going to shift? While I was right there? Oh God.

I moved a little bit farther behind the tree, but still in seeing distance. They took a few steps back, so that they were side to side.

Then they both took a running leap into the air and shifted. They landed back on the ground in their cat form.

I tried to hide the gasp that came out of my mouth, but it was too late. I've seen shape shifters shift before, but what I didn't expect was what Dane turned into.

He was the rarest of them all. He was the white tiger.

They turned at the sound of my gasp and I didn't think I just reacted. I turned around and blindly sprinted through the trees.

Branches slapped at me and the snow slowed me down to almost a walk. They would catch up to me soon, if not now.

I slowed to a stop and ran behind the biggest tree I could find. I heard footsteps, footsteps? Coming closer and then Dane stepped around the tree I had my back to and stopped to face me.

I was breathing heavily and my heart was racing a mile a minute. I tried to calm down, but he had looked so familiar.

He looked so much like the tiger that had killed my father, except for the fact that he was black and white, while the other tiger had been orange and black.

I stared up at his face, trying to calm myself down. Trying to tell myself that this was Dane. Just Dane, the guy that had saved me from disaster two times now. He couldn't…wouldn't harm me.

"You're the white tiger." I said into the air. He nodded and took a step forward. "Don't, please don't come any closer." I held up a hand in front of me, stilling his movements.

"You're afraid of me." His voice was soft, yet hard. It sent tingles down my back. I shook my head.

"I just… I just can't get the picture out of my head. You look so similar to him." His expression turned confused.

"Who?" I looked down at my feet, trying to decide if I should tell him or not. It was now or never I guess.

"The tiger that killed my father a year ago. The tiger you're trying to find." I finally looked up and into his eyes. The golden hues seemed to swirl together.

"That's why you're so scared of us… of me." I looked into the forest, anywhere, but at him.

"I don't want to be afraid of you. But I'll never forget that night when he killed my father." I sagged against the tree as my adrenalin rush came to an end.

He nodded, but kept quiet. My heart was finally coming to a normal pace, when I heard a commotion coming from my left.

I looked over to see Jonathan, well a panther, that had fur the same color as Jonathan's hair. I quickly looked away hoping he would disappear.

"Jonathan change back. Now." Dane said quickly sensing my fear. I heard a swooshing noise and then, "Hey Riley. When did you get here?" Only Jonathan could make a tense situation less, serious.

I greeted him with a small wave. "Hi." The wind was picking up and the chilling cold was starting to sink in. I started shivering and my lips were probably turning blue.

"You should get back to the resort." Dane said quietly. I gave a humorless laugh, "And that's what I would be doing if I knew which way to go."

I pushed off of the tree and walked around Dane and Jonathan, keeping as much distance from them as possible.

"I think I hear Jim. Catch you guys later." With that Jonathan took off running. I started walking again. Not having a clue as to where I was going, but not caring at the moment.

"You're going the wrong way." Dane said from a few feet behind. "Thank you Captain obvious." I retorted back and kept on walking.

"I can't help who I am Riley and…" I cut him off, "I don't want to talk about you, or me, or anything. I just want to get back to the resort and if you aren't going to help me then I suggest you just leave me alone."

I picked up my pace hoping he would decide to leave me here in the middle of nowhere. I already knew he wouldn't do that, but it was a possibility.

"Turn a little to your right." He said as his hand came to rest on the left side of my waist. I think I jumped about five feet in the air.

I pushed his hand away and said, "Don't touch me." His expression turned pained, but I ignored it. I couldn't think with him so near.

I wasn't supposed to like him. I was supposed to hate him. He was related to what had killed my father.

But the tingles of warmth that flowed through my body when he touched me or spoke my name I couldn't quite ignore.

I didn't know what was happening and I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

The rest of the ten minute walk back to the resort was in silence. We reached the entrance and I quickly opened the door.

"Riley…" I jerked my head to his face and said, "Bye Dane." Then I shut the door in his face and walked/jogged to the elevators and my room.

I just ran away from him… again. "Way to go Riley… way to go" I whispered sarcastically to myself as I shut my door; closing the fears and confusion out of my head for a few hours at least.


	6. Chapter 5: Stupid Shapeshifters

Chapter 5: Stupid Shape Shifters. Stupid Dane

I woke up the next morning around eleven. If you even considered that still morning. I sat up and spotted the answering machine on the bedside table.

The red button on it was blinking. I pressed play and was met with Seth's voice. He said that he had tried calling three times, but I never picked up the phone.

After waiting for an hour he had finally agreed to go out with the boys and run the slopes and he said that he would check in with me later.

I must have been sleeping like a rock last night. Well considering what I had gone through I wasn't too surprised that I had slept so soundly.

I got up and put on a pair of jeans, my Uggs and Seth's old, dark green sweatshirt that he had given to me when he grew out of it a few years ago.

I headed towards the elevators and headed down to the lobby.

I entered the lobby and saw two women sitting on one of the couches and a few people heading outside with their snowboards.

I looked toward the game room and tried to decide if I should chance going in there or not. He probably wasn't there again, right?

I finally decided to brave it and go check what I could do to entertain myself for a few hours. I entered the room to find it empty of all people. Thank God.

I decided to play the arcade pin ball game. It was the only one I was semi-good at. I had to use my hotel key to play and the amount I spent would be charged to my room bill.

It was only fifty cents to play so I didn't care how many times I played. I must have played for about a half an hour before I became bored again.

There was no way I was going on the slopes again without Seth holding onto me every second and I wasn't in the mood to watch TV, so the game room was my only option.

There was an air hockey table and a pool table in the middle of the room. I loved air hockey. I didn't know why, but I loved playing it whenever my friends and I went to an arcade.

I walked over and looked at the pool table. Trialing my hand against the green velvet as I slowly walked around it, remembering the time Seth had tried to teach me.

Yet another thing he couldn't quite succeed at accomplishing. We finally faced the fact that I was horrible at pool and should never play it.

I had kept Seth's advice and haven't played since. It was probably noon by now, but I wasn't hungry.

I was completely and utterly bored, so without thinking I hopped up on the pool table and lied down on my back with my legs dangling off the edge. I looked at the smooth white ceiling and tried to think of something to do.

"This _is_ a resort so they are required to have beds you know." Dane's voice had me sitting up way too fast, causing my head to spin.

"Don't sneak up on people like that! It's not nice." I said as I looked over at him.

He was standing in the doorway gorgeous as can be in a white t-shirt and a pair of dark wash jeans.

_Stop it Riley! Don't think of him like that. You shouldn't even be talking to him._ My consciense said to me, but when have I ever listened to that?... hardly ever.

He moved all the way into the room and started walking towards me. I tensed up as he came within a few feet of me. He paused and a frown came over his face.

He caught my eyes and said, "I'd never hurt you Riley. Why can't you believe that?" He waited for me to respond.

Before I could say what I really wanted to say I hopped off of the pool table and walked around him toward the door.

"I should have listened to Seth and stayed as far away from you guys as possible. God, I'm such an idiot. Dane I don't know what you want from me. I don't know why we keep on running into each other, but I just don't know how a friendship between you and me could ever work. I'm sorry, but I think we should just go our separate ways and stay as far away from each other as possible."

He rounded on me and his eyes were filled with anger.

"And you know what I think? I think you're scared. I think you're afraid, not of what I am, but of what we could be together. I think you're scared to start something with someone because you might lose them. I read your files Riley. You had to be hospitalized because you were so upset over losing your father. You love people to the extent of loving them too much, like your relationship with Seth. I can't even imagine what would happen if you lost your big brother. I love that about you, but that also means you aren't willing to risk finding out what we could be. You're too scared to live again." As his words fell from his lips and sunk into my mind, tears filled in my eyes.

He was dead on. I was scared to love someone again. Losing my dad was the worst thing that could possibly happen to me. I loved him and then all of a sudden he was gone. I couldn't risk finding something only to lose it like I had lost my father.

I turned my eyes to his and he saw the tears welling in them. He took a step forward. He whispered my name and a piece of my heart started to break.

Why now? Why was everything that had just been put back together falling apart again? I had finally come to terms with losing my father.

Now Dane was here and everything was crashing down. Stupid Shape shifters. Stupid Dane.

"There you are Dane. We've been looking for you everywhere. Oh hi, I remember you. Your names Riley right?" Adria stepped into the game room, with Michael and Jonathan following her.

She turned to me and I quickly blinked my eyes a few times, hoping she wouldn't notice anything was wrong.

"Hi. Yeah I'm Riley." I looked away and back to Dane, who looked like he was ready to kill all three of them for interrupting.

"Man, the slopes are amazing. They put new snow down today, they're perfect!" Jonathan said excitedly.

Dane put on a fake smile and replied, "Really? Maybe I'll check them out later." He put his hands in his pockets and I noticed they were shaking.

"Do you snowboard Riley?" Adria asked me.

I shook my head, "No I tried it yesterday. That didn't turn out so well." I grimaced and everyone chuckled, except for Dane.

"Well maybe it won't be so bad today. Dane's an amazing snowboarder I'm sure he could teach you." Adria said to me. Hah if she only knew…

I just shrugged and looked down at the floor. Guys weren't my forte and Dane was a whole other story.

"Anybody up for a game of air hockey?" Michael said, breaking the silence in the room. I looked towards the hockey table and said, "You're on."

Michael took the red paddle and I took the other blue circular one. Adria inserted a dollar and the air hockey machine rushed to life. The air blew softly on my fingers.

"You ready to lose?" Michael said with an excited grin on his face. He was going down.

"No way. I'm a pro at this game." With that I took the puck and hit it across the table. I could beat pretty much anybody at this game, even my brother, so maybe I could beat Michael too.

He hit it back with enough force that my hand shook after I hit it back to his side. "I guess being shape shifters does have its perks. That hurt." I said, half jokingly.

"Tone it down Michael." Dane said his voice having a lethal ring to it. "Sorry Riley." Michael replied.

"It's no problem Mikey. I'm gonna win anyways." I gave him an apologetic smile. Dane needed to chill.

He gave me a lopsided grin and our game continued. Ten minutes later the game was tied and whoever scored next won the game.

Jonathan, Dane, and Adria were standing around the air hockey table cheering me on. They wanted me to beat poor Michael. Adria and Jonathan were standing to my left, while Dane was closer to me on my right.

He hit the puck so hard I almost didn't see it. He had toned his strength down until now. Before I could react Dane's hand landed onto my hand and moved the paddle so it hit the flying puck into Michael's goal. Winning the game.

"I win!" I yelled at him.

"No fair. You cheated. Dane helped you!" Michael retorted.

"Nope. I win fair and square. You used your super human strength for the last one."

"Yeah. She won." Adria said giving me a high five.

"You're my sister; you're supposed to be on my side!" Michael said giving her a little shove.

My hand was still tingling from where Dane had touched it and that reminded me of what happened between the two of us a half an hour ago.

Good things never last. My smile slipped away and I looked at the clock on the far wall. It was three o' clock in the afternoon. Seth was probably still on the slopes.

"Hey Riley there's a bunch of us hanging out later you should come." Michael said to me.

"No she's not ready for that." Dane said before I could respond.

"But she knows about us." Michael argued. Dane looked back at me. I had no clue what Dane was talking about.

"So you think she would be fine with a bunch of shape shifters, some in their cat forms, just hanging out?"

Oh now I got it. Okay so maybe that wasn't such a good idea, but maybe I could get used to one shape shifter at a time?

"Thanks Michael, but maybe some other time. I'm staying here for three more days. I'm sure we can all hang out before I leave."

"Okay." He replied with his lopsided grin and Adria nodded.

Jonathan had picked up his phone and was talking to someone. He quickly hung up and said that everyone had to go. Except me of course because I wasn't in their little pack.

They filed out and I followed after them. They started walking down the hall, but I pulled on Dane's arm.

He quickly turned to face me, surprised that I actually wanted to talk to him.

"I was wondering if we could meet later and you could… you could maybe shift and I could get used to not being afraid of you any longer." He was already shaking his head by the time I had finished talking.

"Why not? I'd feel safer if I knew it was you who was shifting. I don't want to be afraid anymore Dane." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Please." I gave him the saddest look I could make.

He looked at me for several moments and then frowned, "Fine. But the second you start freaking out don't blame me."

I smiled and said, "Thanks. So when should we meet?" He looked at his cell phone. "How about the back entrance around midnight?"

I nodded. "That's fine. Thank you!"

He started walking backwards. "We're still finishing the conversation we started earlier. Don't think I forgot about it. Bye Riley." With that he turned around and jogged down the rest of the hallway.

"Of course I never thought you forgot. I was just hoping you wouldn't bring it up." I whispered into the empty air.


	7. Chapter 6: Just think of me as

Chapter 6: Just Think of Me as a Big Stuffed Animal or Something

Seth ended up having dinner with me. He felt guilty for not hanging out with me. We ate at one of the three restaurants located in the resort. I was stuffed by the time I got back to my hotel room.

Over dinner Seth had told me that Mike and Ryan had rented a helicopter that would take them anywhere on the mountain so they could snowboard and explore the area.

Seth had said no considering we hadn't spent much time together, but I then persuaded him to call his friends back and say that he would go.

Snowboarding anywhere on the mountain is not something to pass up, as long as you're really good at it and love to do it, like Seth did.

So now I wasn't sure what I was going to do tomorrow, but I would figure that out later. I had bigger things to worry about.

For example in about a minute I would walk out the back entrance of the resort and meet up with Dane.

Enough said there.

I got off the elevator and walked to the back doors. I opened the door and stepped out into the cool night air.

There were a billion and more stars out and the moon was bright illuminating the surrounding snow and trees.

I saw Dane walking towards me. He came to a stop in front of me. "You sure you still wanna do this?" He was hoping I would say no and run back into my hotel room.

Well that wasn't going to happen…not this time. "Yes, I'm ready. Let's go." With that I started walking towards the trees.

We walked for about fifteen minutes in silence until we reached a small clearing. I put my gloved hands in my north face jacket and waited for him to say something.

"So you want me to shift even though I remind you of the tiger that killed your father?" Well when he put it that way…

"You said you'd never hurt me, so I'm trusting you not to eat me." I stared him down and he finally gave a defeated sigh.

"Okay step back. Just think of me as a big stuffed animal or something." That made me laugh.

He gave me a small smile in return then jumped into the air.

When he landed he was the white tiger I remembered from before. He turned to face me. He probably came up to the top of my shoulder. He could eat me whole if he wanted to.

He took a step towards me and I locked eyes with him. All shape shifters had the same eyes when they were in cat form. So my heart started racing when I started having a flash back of the night my father was killed.

Dane must have sensed my fear because he started backing away from me. I didn't want him to shift back so I reassured him, "I'm fine. Just give me a second." I took a few deep breaths then stepped towards him.

He stayed completely still as I walked towards him. The muscles rippled in his legs and his eyes seemed to calculate my every move. I was now only a foot away from him.

"It's just Dane. It's just Dane." I said that over and over as I took the final step to reach him. My hand connected with the side of his face.

I was feeling a little awkward knowing that this was Dane and I was petting him. His fur was as soft as velvet. My fingers ran through it and I could feel the heat radiating off of him.

He moved forward a little so I could run my hands along his back. After a few moments he laid down in the snow and I felt comfortable enough to lie down on my back in the snow next to him.

I was looking up at the stars when I felt his head move and then it was lying across my stomach. For some reason I wasn't freaking out.

I smiled at this and rubbed one of his ears. "You know just because you're a tiger now, doesn't give you permission to take advantage of the situation." He made a rumbling noise in the back of his throat. His form of laughing.

We laid there in silence for what seemed forever. Then I spoke up. "Dane," He picked his head up to look at me, "I just wanted to say thank you. If it wasn't for you…"

I lost my train of thought when I saw Dane begin to shake then almost disappear. Then he was back in human form almost lying on top of me.

His left hand was on the right side of my waist holding him up in the snow, while the rest of his body was on my left.

He looked down at me and I caught his gaze. "You don't have to thank me. I didn't do anything, except be who I am, which wasn't really great considering you're problem with them."

True, but…"Well I don't have that problem anymore at least not with you." His face seemed to inch closer to mine.

"So you don't have a problem with shape shifters now. You're not afraid of me?" He seemed to be waiting for me to say the right thing, although I didn't know what that was.

"Well I'm okay with big cats. If that's what you're asking. I'm not so sure if I'm okay with you." His face was an inch from mine now and I couldn't help but look at his lips.

"Maybe this will change your mind." With that he put his lips to mine and he was kissing me and I was kissing him back.

His lips were smooth and he seemed to know exactly what to do. His tongue ran along my bottom lip and I gasped. My lips parted and he entered my mouth.

I was breathing fast now as his tongue explored my mouth and then my tongue met his. I was an amateur compared to him, but I didn't care at the moment he was just so good. Everything felt so good.

After a while he pulled away and started trailing hot kisses along my jaw. He was now practically on top of me. One of his legs was in between mine, while one of his hands was on my waist and the other was resting against my face.

I don't know why I was letting him do this. But it _was_ Dane. And he _was_ amazing at it.

Too soon he was pulling away and looking down at me, "Sorry. I didn't mean for things to go that far. I told myself just one kiss, but…" It was funny to watch him search for something to say.

I laughed and then looked back up at him, "One kiss wouldn't have been enough for me either."

He smiled at that then stood up. His warm body was gone and the cold started to seep in.

I started shivering and he grabbed my hand, "Come on let's get you back before you freeze to death." Of course he had no problem because he had a winter coat built in.

Fifteen minutes later we got on the elevators and I hit floor nine. "What are you doing tomorrow?" I jerked my head up to his at the sound of his voice.

"Oh, umm, nothing really. Seth is hanging out with his friends, so I don't really have anything to do." He smiled, "Good. Then you're going to learn how to snowboard."

He's kidding right? "No way Dane. Snowboarding and me just don't mix." He moved towards me and put his hands on my hips. I backed up until I bumped into the wall.

I gave him a quizzical glance. "I'm going to teach and you're going to end up loving it." I gave him an unsure glare. "Am I now?" He put his lips against my ear.

"Oh most definitely. You're going to enjoy every second of it." I could feel his smile against my ear and I couldn't help but smile in return.

The elevator bell dinged and the doors slid open. I jumped at the sound of the bell and quickly pushed Dane away.

A guy around my age entered the elevator and my cheeks became flaming red. I hurriedly got off and Dane followed me out.

Well that was… (I'll let you know when I figure it out)

* * *

I woke to the sound of my hotel room phone going off, but I tried to muffle the sound by pulling the blankets over my head.

It was way too early for me to be getting up. No one wanted to be in my presence this early in the morning.

"Up and at em' sweetheart." Danes voice filled my hotel room.

I sat up and looked around at the light streaming in from my window. I quickly got out of bed and reached for the phone.

He was a dead man. "For your information about half the people in this resort are sleeping. They are not being disturbed or bothered by an annoying shape shifter who has the nerve to call and wake me up at…," I quickly looked at the bedside clock, "nine thirty in the morning. Now if you have any good sense in that small brain of yours you will let me go back to sleep."

I was never a nice person in the morning. I never meant anything I said it just sort of comes out of my mouth without me realizing it.

Dane's laugh came over the phone, "Are you finished? Because I have this amazing cup of hot chocolate sitting next to me. It smells so good, but I guess if you want to go back to sleep I'll just throw it out." His tone was patronizing.

"Don't you dare throw that out Dane!" I hung up on him as he began laughing again. I started pulling on my snow pants and my north face winter jacket. Then I grabbed my gloves off the dresser and raced out my door towards the elevators.

The elevators opened to the lobby and I saw Dane across the room holding the cup of hot chocolate directly above a trash can.

He was smiling and I raced towards him, slowing down a few times so I didn't run into other guests staying at the resort.

I finally reached Dane and then went to grab the cup away from him, but his reflexes were too fast and he brought the cup out of my reach above his head.

"So now you come down here. Not because I was here, but because of hot chocolate." He mock glared at me and I smiled.

"Of course I came down here for the hot chocolate. I don't see anything else that is quite as important as hot chocolate."

He brought the cup over the trash can again, "Really? Are sure about that?"

He let it slip slowly through his fingers. "Okay wait maybe there is one thing more important than hot chocolate." I let the tension build through the air.

"And what's that?" He said staring at me instead of watching the cup and my hand that was creeping slowly towards it.

I grabbed the hot chocolate from his hand and said, "The whipped cream on top." I grinned up at him as I took a small sip of the delicious chocolate.

He smiled, "You're a sneaky one." I smiled back at him.

"So you ready to snowboard?"

I nodded and we headed outside.

The day was pretty warm and the clear blue sky put everyone in a happy mood. Dane grabbed his board that looked like it had been used quite a lot and then grabbed a smaller one for me from the rack of snowboards guests could use for free.

"So let's go up the hill a bit and practice for a little while, before we go to the top." I took my board and we walked a little ways up the small hill I had previously come crashing down from.

"Okay so lock your shoes onto the board." I strapped my feet in and waited for him to get on his, but he didn't.

"How come you're not getting on your board?" He smiled.

"It's easier to catch you without the board." His cocky grin stayed in place.

"Or maybe I'll just crash into you again." I retorted back.

"Yeah that won't be happening again. Okay so turn your board so you're heading down the slope. You want to try and keep your weight centered. You direct the snowboard with your legs and with how you move your upper body. Lean forward and you'll go faster. The more you lean down or to one side, you'll start going to the right or left. Get what I'm saying?" He looked down at me for confirmation.

I nodded. I turned my board so it faced downwards, but then I started moving. "Wait! I'm not ready!" Dane moved in front of me then reached out and grabbed my hands before I could go anywhere.

"Don't worry I've got you." Then he started moving backwards while still holding onto my hands, keeping me steady.

"Try leaning to one side. Get a feel of what you're doing." I started leaning to the right and my board then followed my lead.

I smiled as I started getting the hang of it and Dane eventually let go of me.

A half an hour later I was a pro or well not a pro, but much better than when I had first started. We headed up to the top of the hill and after three hours of snowboarding I was exhausted and extremely happy that I had finally learned to snowboard and realized I actually enjoyed it.

There were only a few times where Dane had to catch me before I fell and every time I came in contact with him, my heart sped up and tingles spread through my body.

It was four o'clock by the time we entered the lobby. We found the usual group hanging in the game room.

Adria spotted us first. "Hey guys!"

" So Riley how was snowboarding? Was Dane a good teacher?"

I looked over at Dane who had gone over to talk to Jonathan and Michael. "Yeah it was a lot of fun. Dane is a pro. He might be even better than my brother." I sat down in the chair across from where she sat.

"Yeah he loves the snow and considering what he is, it would be pretty weird if he didn't." She said smiling.

"Michael on the other hand prefers the indoors. He only comes up here for the hanging-with-friends part."

We both looked over to where Michael must have been telling a funny story because Jonathan was almost laughing on the floor and Dane was soon going to follow him by the looks of it.

"He sure is good at that." I responded.

A few minutes later the guys came over to where we were sitting. "Hey Riley, so everyone's hanging out later on tonight. Would you wanna come?" Michael asked. He looked so hopeful.

"I don't thi…" I cut Dane off. "Yeah I'd love to." I said looking anywhere, but at Dane.

I was 80% positive that I could handle all the shape shifters tonight, in any form they took. I was comfortable with Dane now, so I was sure I would be all right with the rest of them.

I made a descreet glance at Dane's face and was met with an angry stare.

At least I hoped I was…


	8. Chapter 7: Shattered Heart

Chapter 7: Shattered Heart

We all met in the woods at midnight. I walked there with Michael and Adria because Dane was still pissed I had agreed to go. The clearing had many more shifters than last time. They were all currently in their human form, so I was fine so far.

I was just hoping I wasn't wrong and that I would be okay when they did begin to shift.

I spotted Dane and Jonathan talking with a few other people, but I was happy to just follow Michael and Adria around to meet more of their friends.

It was about an hour later that everything went from completely fine, to a total mess. I was talking to Chloe, a girl Adria had introduced me to. She was the girlfriend of another shape shifter that was over talking in the small group Dane was in.

She was sweet and innocent. She had baby blue eyes that took up most of her face along with blonde hair and a light dusting of freckles along her cheeks.

We were talking about where we would ever think of traveling to and she was telling me that she had always wanted to travel to Australia.

We were both facing towards the center of the clearing. Dane was to my left and out of my line of vision.

I was having a great time even when two of the shape shifters went into their cat forms to roam around.

But then about ten others shifted. There were about thirty people total so twelve shifting was kind of a lot.

I tried not to look at any of them, especially their eyes, but I couldn't help but catch their gaze every once and a while and it was then that I started freaking out.

I kept seeing the tiger that had killed my father and every time I would lock eyes with one of them the chilling roar would get louder and louder inside my head.

Chloe must have noticed my distraught state because she asked if I was all right.

All I could do was nod and give a weak smile, hardly a smile at all.

"Will you excuse me for a second?" My voice barely registered in the air.

Chloe nodded looking confused. I slowly moved away and turned to walk towards Dane's group, but he was nowhere to be seen.

I turned to look where he might be and instead locked gazes with a black leopard. It was then that I started to panic. My heart was going at a break neck speed and I was beginning to hyperventilate.

I started jogging across the clearing, dodging anyone in my path. I headed for the trees and the dark forest.

The second I reached a big tree I collapsed against it; trying to control my breathing and my racing heart.

A second later I heard the crunch of snow and then Dane was standing before me. I looked up into his eyes and almost collapsed in relief.

"I know you're gonna want to tell me I told you so, but for right now can you just hold me?"

Before I even finished my sentence he had wrapped his arms around me and I put my head against his chest, while wrapping my arms around him.

Holding on for dear life.

The warmth from his body seeped into me and I instantly stopped shaking. The masculine, yet earthy smell of him calmed my racing heart.

After a few minutes I stepped away from him and leaned back against the tree. I didn't want to look up at him, knowing that he was right.

"I should have made you stay with me. I'm sorry." His apology caught me off guard. Why should he apologize? It wasn't his fault, it was mine.

I looked up at him. "Don't apologize Dane. I was being stupid." I heard one of the shape shifters growl and jumped towards Dane, clinging to his side.

He laughed and said, "They won't hurt you. Plus I'm here so they won't even come near you. You're safe with me." He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer.

"What you're like the boss or something?"

He shrugged, "Somethin' like that." Before I could get more answers out of him Jonathan came around the tree we were standing behind.

"There you two are. So a bunch of us are going to the pond. Wanna come?" There was a pond near here?

I voiced my question. Jonathan nodded, "Yeah. It's in the middle of a clearing like this only a lot bigger. We found it a few days ago. It's frozen solid right now so some of us skate on it or just slide around. It's fun."

As long as Dane stayed close by, I was in. "I'll go if Dane goes." I looked up at him.

He rolled his eyes at me and said, "Yeah we're coming." With that we took off in the direction Jonathan was leading us. Dane took my hand and we walked side by side until we reached the tiny pond.

Most of the cats had shifted back to walk on the ice and a few stood around the pond to watch many of them slip and fall on their butts.

It was quite comical to watch them try to slide across. Michael was trying to get Adria to come on the ice and she was trying desperately to get Michael's hand off her arm.

A second later Jonathan joined in the fun and started helping Michael drag Adria onto the ice. Once Adria was on she started skidding around unable to balance on the slippery ice.

She had grabbed hold of Michael's sweatshirt and was now dragging him down as well. I was laughing hysterically at their attempts to stand up.

After Adria had finally found her footing she turned to me. "If I'm forced on here you better be getting your butt over here too." She mock glared at me and I quickly let go of Dane's hand to walk onto the ice towards Adria.

I tentively stepped onto the ice, my winter boots only giving me a little traction. I slowly slid/walked towards her. She reached her hand out to pull me the rest of the way and then we were both cautiously standing on the ice, hoping to not be hit by anyone else sliding on the ice.

"I used to do this when I was little. My parents would bring me to the lake down the road and then Seth and I would run and slide across the ice. It was so much fun." I told her remembering how much I had laughed those days. Remembering my dad's smile.

Adria looked over at me. "Wanna go slide-tackle Mikey and Jon?" I nodded enthusiastically. They were a few yards behind us watching a few of the other guys try to run without slipping and falling.

"Okay. Start running and when I say to, run head on into them." We turned in their direction and started to run, well as fast as we could run on ice, towards them.

We were a foot away when Adria yelled, "Now!" And then we ran into them as hard as we could. The two boys were sprawled on the ice a second later, shocked faces looking up at us.

Adria and I were laughing hysterically. "You should see your faces right now!" I said in between fits of laughter.

"That was so funny!" Adria said laughing so hard she was now kneeling on the ground.

I turned as I heard a commotion behind me. One of the guys was running full on a few yards away and then jumped on his butt to slide across the ice.

He didn't notice me who was currently in his way. I tried to walk the other way, but it was too slippery and I fell onto my butt and my hands that were now probably scrapped.

I closed my eyes, ready for the impact, but it was interrupted by someone's large body coming over me. The guy crashed into the body on top of me. I slowly opened my eyes as silence filled my ears.

I looked up only to lock gazes with Dane who was still on top of me. "I can't leave you alone for more than a second can I." His statement made me smile.

"Riley are you all right?" Adria said frantically as she kneeled beside us.

"Yeah I'm fine. Thank God Dane's got catlike reflexes." I said jokingly. Adria burst out laughing and then went to go help Michael and Jonathan who were still lying on the ground.

I looked back at Dane and he was about to ask me something when I felt my phone start vibrating in my back pocket.

"Hang on." I told him, as I pulled my phone out and answered it.

"Hello?" Who would be calling at two in the morning?

"Oh Riley you're still up. I was just going to leave you a message, but since you're up I'll just tell you now."

It was Emily. She usually just txted Becky and I, so this message must be important.

"Okay. What's up?" Dane had put is forearms on either side of me and was now pressed more firmly to me, making it hard to concentrate. He had a cocky smile on his face.

"The police said they had more information on the case of your father's death. I know you probably don't want to think about it again, but they said the information was important and that they really needed to talk to you or Seth. They've talked to your mother, but they said that she didn't want to talk to them." As Emily's words registered in my mind fear consumed me. I wasn't sure why, but it did.

Dane's smile had quickly disappeared as he noticed my distraught expression. I pushed him off of me and quickly sat up.

"Did they give you a number to call?" I tried to stand up, but holding a cell phone made it difficult. Dane quickly got to his feet and picked me up and set me back down on my feet as if I weighed ten pounds, not a hundred and ten pounds.

"Yeah I txted you the number. And the guy said his name was Leitenant Lautner. Call me if you need to talk or anything okay?" Concern laced her voice. I rarely talked to them about my dad's death. I just couldn't tell them the truth.

"Okay. Yeah. Talk to you later. Bye." I hung up after she said goodbye, then typed in the number she said to call.

I was about to hit send when Dane closed my phone and took it out of my hands. "What are you doing? I have to find out what they know."

Dane seemed like he was trying to figure out how to explain something to me. It was several seconds before he did and I was getting angry at him.

"We have to deal with this. It's one of our kind so they follow our law. If one of us does break the law, we deal with them our own way. If the police gets involved things get messy and complicated. We don't need their help." He was unbelievable.

"Oh. Okay. I think I get it. So you guys think your law is so much better, even though you've been searching for this tiger for the past year and still haven't caught him. Yeah that makes a ton of sense to me."

Dane's face turned hard. "Riley you don't understand. If you involve the police anymore than you all ready have, you put all of our lives at stake. If they find out it really was a shape shifter, people will start to panic and start hunting us. We came out a year ago because we didn't want to hide anymore and we thought over time people would accept us. If they find out a shape shifter killed a human, all of our freedom will be taken away."

He didn't care. All this time I had thought he cared about me, but it was all a lie. He didn't care about me, all he cared about was being free and staying that way.

"Screw you Dane. Screw you." With that I turned around and started walking off the ice. Once I got to the snow and solid ground I took off running.

"Riley wait!" His yell didn't slow me down, I just kept on running. I had been to these woods multiple times now, so thankfully I knew the way back to the resort.

I was only running for five minutes when I heard someone running behind me, in my heart I was hoping it was Dane, but a second later Michael was running beside me.

My heart shattered even more. He wasn't even going to try and fix what he had done. A small piece of my heart had hoped that he did love me, but this proved he didn't.

I slowed to a walk, finding it hard to breathe and it wasn't from all the running I had just done. Michael didn't say anything just continued to walk beside me.

We reached the resort entrance fifteen minutes later and I walked towards the elevators, Michael following me.

"You don't have to walk me to my door Michael. I'm fine." I pushed the up button and waited my arms crossed in front of me.

"Dane wanted me to stay with you. Make sure you were all right." Of course he would.

"Well you can tell Dane that he can go to hell and that I hope he stays there. Bye Michael." I gave a tiny wave and got on the elevator. Michael gave me a small smile, "I'll tell him." Then he turned and walked back towards the front entrance.

Well maybe now my life would go back to being normal. My mind believed it would, but deep down my heart knew it would never be able to.

It would never be able to forget Dane.


	9. Chapter 8: So the Idiot Lives

**Hi again! So thanks for the reviews!! I'm glad you guys like my story =) I like to hear what you all think and if you have any suggestions please let me know! Any feedback/reviews are welcome, good or bad haha**

**So here's another chapter, hope you like it!!**

**~h~**

**p.s. chapters 9and10 should be up in a day or two =)**

Chapter 8: So the Idiot Lives

The last day of the trip was spent with Seth and I snowboarding and him being impressed that I could actually snowboard well.

I didn't tell him how I learned. We had left at the latest check-out time so we could snowboard the whole day.

Seth got my mind off of everything that had happened the night before and I was glad that he had. I didn't want to ruin his vacation with my bad mood.

It was now seven thirty Monday morning. The first day back to school after winter break. Becky and Emily met me in our homeroom and we all started talking about the fun things we did.

"Oh I almost forgot!" Emily said turning to me. "So what did that police guy say? What did he want to tell you?"

The truth was I hadn't called him. I really wanted to. To get back at Dane for what he did, but for some reason I couldn't make myself dial the number.

"Oh just that they think they might have found a lead and that they'd call me back when they knew more." It wasn't a total lie.

They probably did have a lead and they probably were going to call me back some time soon.

"Oh. Well I hope the owner of those dogs are caught." Becky nodded in agreement. If they only knew the truth…

"Okay class let's settle down and start the month of January off right." Mrs. Phillips said enthusiastically.

* * *

It was finally Thursday. It had been three weeks with five days of classes and too much homework, but this week we had Friday off for parent-teacher meetings.

It was last period and I had a free period. I loved free periods, although they were meant for getting your homework done, mine was last period. No one can do homework then.

Luckily Becky had this free too so we were both goofing off and talking to, of course, some boys. I had blocked Dane from my mind for nearly two weeks and it had worked until I started talking to any guy.

It was weird. I would start talking to them and then a few seconds later it wouldn't be their faces I see, it would be Dane's.

It was making it hard to concentrate on what the guy in front of me was saying. "So this weekend do you have any plans?" I blinked my eyes a couple times and finally saw the blonde, brown eyed guy in front of me.

"Oh umm. Not yet. How about you?" We were in the library sitting at one of the many desks. I looked over at the stairs that led to the senior parking lot and it was then that I spotted a red head sprinting down the stairs, taking them two at a time.

It couldn't be, could it?

I turned back to the guy who was nervously fidgeting with his hands that were on the table and it was then that I realized he had just asked me out.

Before I could respond, someone yelled my name from the entrance to the library. I turned and sure enough there was Michael.

I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Who's that Riley?" Becky asked me. Winking at me.

I ignored her and walked over to him. "You do know this is a library right? Yelling is frowned upon." I looked up at his face and it was then that I noticed his scared expression.

"What's going on Michael?" He brought his eyes to mine.

"Dane's hurt. He's hurt real bad and if he doesn't change back to his human form soon he could die." My heart had begun to race at his words and his expression.

Then I remembered Dane didn't care about me, so why should I care about him?

"Well I hope he shifts back soon. I have to go, but I hope everything turns out okay." I started walking past him, but he caught my arm.

"Riley you don't understand. There's a lot you don't know about Dane. Things he couldn't tell you. You have to help him. Please." More secrets. There were always more secrets between us, I hated them.

"Riley he loves you. I know he hasn't said it yet and he may not for a while, but he does. You have to believe me." Tears had formed at the hope that swept through my heart.

Could he really love me? But he had wanted to protect the other shape shifters more than me. That definitely wasn't love. But I couldn't let him die, not without knowing the truth, all of it.

"Fine. But I don't see how I can help him." Michael's smile of relief made me smile too.

"I don't know either. Just talk to him." With that he took off running to the parking lot as I followed him.

* * *

We drove for about an hour. We were still in Maine on the border really, but still in my state. Michael was driving like a maniac, but I wasn't that worried since he _was_ a cat.

What I was worried about was the fact that Michael was scared. So scared he was driving like a maniac and constantly looking at the clock on the dash board.

How hurt could Dane really be?

Before I could voice my question Michael pulled into a long driveway that led to a huge house. It looked sort of like a log cabin, but with three stories and a lot bigger than any log cabin I had ever seen.

Michael literally jumped out of the car, as I cautiously stepped out. "Come on!" Michael said grabbing my arm as he jogged towards the back yard. The entire house was surrounded by huge pine trees.

We rounded the corner and I stopped short as the scene before me held me in fear. A group of people had made a circle around Dane. His white and black coat was marred by blood.

So much blood that I didn't think he should be able to walk around, let alone pace back and forth like he was doing now.

"Dane come on man, shift back. You're going to kill yourself." Jonathan said from his spot with the circle of people, but his words only made Dane growl.

Before I knew what I was doing I had stepped into the circle. "Dane." My voice was only a whisper, but he stopped pacing and came towards me.

For a moment my heart sped up with fear, but I told myself this was just Dane and calmed down.

He stopped when he was in front of me. I could see the pain in his eyes. I was still mad at him, but not enough that I wanted him to keep on suffering.

"Change back Dane. Please."My voice pleading with him. He finally collapsed to the ground, unable to hold himself up any longer.

"Dane. The doc's here. Change back. We'll deal with everything later." Jonathan bargained with him. Although deal with what I wasn't sure.

He was breathing heavily now and blood was seeping from multiple wounds on his side. "You're supposed to be invincible." I said trying to make him laugh.

He looked up at me and then disappeared before returning as Dane in human form. I was so relieved I almost fell on top of him. I hugged him so hard, while trying not to touch his wounds.

"Okay everyone move out of the way. Let me take a look at him." The doctor said as he walked towards us. He was in his early fifties with graying hair and looked to be a little over weight, but his eyes seemed full of life.

I was about to back away when Dane grabbed my hand. I looked down at him, but his eyes were closed in pain.

"Let go of her Dane. She'll still be here when you wake up." Jonathan said trying not to laugh. Did he think I wouldn't stay?

"I won't go." I told him, hoping to reassure him. His eyes opened and pierced mine.

"Promise me." He whispered.

I nodded, "I promise I'll be here when you wake up." As if that was the only thing holding him to consciousness, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

I promised I would be there when he woke up, but I didn't promise I would stay. I didn't know what we were to each other, if we even loved each other.

They had moved him to an upstairs bedroom. Michael had placed a chair next to his bed for me and that's where I've been sitting for the last three hours.

I had called my mom and told her I was staying over Becky's and thankfully Becky was such a good friend, so she had agreed to lie and say I was over at her house.

It was almost midnight and I was getting pretty tired. Adria had set up the bedroom next to Dane's for me, but for some reason I didn't want to leave him.

By my tenth yawn I finally made my daring decision to sleep on the bed with Dane. This was probably crazy, but I was tired and I didn't want to leave him.

I cautiously climbed on the other side of the bed, trying to stay quiet and not move him too much. I got comfortable, but stayed on top of the covers.

Then I rested my head on the pillow. He was shirtless because of all the bullet wounds that the doctor had to sew up and bandage.

No one had told me how Dane had managed to get hurt this bad. They had all conveniently needed to go do something whenever I brought the subject up.

I moved a little closer, liking the heat that was radiating off of him. I reached out and put my left hand against his skin and instantly my entire body calmed down.

I drifted off to sleep, praying Dane would be okay. That we would both be okay.

* * *

I woke to someone cursing. "Dammit!" I quickly sat up to find Dane reaching for the cup of water that was on the side table next to the bed. He would almost reach it, but it would only slide further away from his fingertips.

I hid my smile. I quickly reached over him and grabbed it for him. "Here." I said handing it to him. He was pouting now.

"I'm not thirsty anymore." He said angrily. I shrugged and started drinking the water. He watched me silently.

"So I have to get back home soon." If he wasn't going to apologize or try to explain himself, then I didn't want to stay.

His eyes seemed panicked at my words. I set the cup back on the table and started to get off the bed.

Before I was even half off Dane had grabbed my waist and I was unceremoniously tossed against the pillows and Dane was suddenly on top of me.

"You're going to rip out your stitches." I said matter of factly.

"I don't care. The first time I saw you, you had this me against the shape shifters kind of cocky smile going on and I thought she has no clue. Then I find out she's deathly afraid of them and would never think of dating one, and then after all of that I come to find this girl who rescues the biggest jackass in the world. And I think damn if only I wasn't that jackass. Maybe she could love me."

I folded my arms not giving in to his stupid, okay really cute, rant about being a complete idiot towards me.

"You're a really big jackass." I said smiling back, but then became serious. "You hurt me Dane. You really hurt me." I looked away from him.

"I know. I know that and I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have said any of that and I did want to protect you. I couldn't let you involve the police anymore because…" I cut him off.

"Because it would hurt all the other shape shifters and it would…" He cut me off.

"Yes it would do that, but it would hurt you too. The more the police gets involved the more shape shifters will know who started it all. They won't just want to kill the tiger that was stupid enough to kill your father. They'll want to kill you too because you cost us our freedom."

Oh. He had cared about me; I was just too stupid to hear it.

"Oh." Was all that came out as I stared up at him. He smiled and moved a piece of my hair out of my face.

He moved a little to make himself more comfortable, while staying on top of me. "Are you okay?"

He grimaced. "I will be in a few hours." The covers had slipped off his back to expose the six bullet wounds that covered his back, chest, and stomach.

I reached out and traced the skin that was untouched by bandages. He shivered and I looked up at his closed eyes.

"You'd probably be more comfortable if you were lying on your back instead of holding yourself up so you don't crush me."

He slowly opened his eyes and looked down at me. "Only if you keep doing that." So he liked me touching him. Good to know.

He moved to his back as I smiled. I started tracing my name across his chest, careful to stay away from the bandages.

His eyes slowly closed again. A few minutes later I noticed blood oozing from one of the bandages on his side.

"Dane you're bleeding." I sat up.

"That's okay. I'll be completely healed in a few hours." Just because he was a shape shifter didn't mean he couldn't die from too much blood loss.

"You've already lost a lot of blood Dane." He sighed as I continued to worry.

"Fine I'll just shift again. Will that make you happy?" He sat up and looked over at me.

"Will it heal you?" He nodded.

"Then yes." Dane got up and hobbled to the middle of the room. I stood up too and waited.

Before he could shift the bedroom door opened and in walked Jonathan.

"So the idiot lives." I laughed and Dane scowled at him.

"We're having a pack meeting in the living room in about an hour. Just thought you should know." Dane nodded.

"Oh and Adria wanted to see you." Jonathan said pointing to me, then walking back out the door.

"Oh. Okay." I turned to Dane. "I'm going to go see what she wants." I started walking towards the door.

"Riley." I turned towards him. "I never meant to hurt you." I nodded. "I know. I just don't know if I can trust you again, not yet at least."

With that I walked out the door and towards Adria's room. I knocked on the door and it quickly opened. Adria grabbed my hand and yanked me inside.

She was wearing a white sweater, black jeans, and white socks. I still had on my jeans from the day before, as well as my blood stained rain jacket I had been wearing at school.

"Okay so before we start chatting and me telling you a lot about what is going on I think you should take a shower and borrow some of my clothes. I know I'm a little bit taller than you, but I'm sure some of my old stuff I have lying around will fit you." She said all this as she ushered me in to the humongous bathroom of hers.

"Wow." Was all that I could say.

"I know. You'll love it. The clothes will be on the bed. There are towels in the cabinet over to the left and I will be back in half an hour." With that she walked out of the bathroom and I heard the bedroom door close.

A shower sounded really nice right now. It also sounded like the only sane thing I had done in the past twenty four hours.


	10. Chapter 9: And That's What Everyone

**Hi!! So here's two more chapters =) **

**Melissa92: to answer your question: no they don't imprint, but they do something like that. Chapter 12 will explain everything about it. Sorry I know that's not really explaining it haha**

**Any more questions or comments please ask or review!!**

**Thanks ~h~**

**p.s. chapters 11 and 12 will be up probably not til Friday (sorry busy week and a soccer game) **

Chapter 9: And That's What Everyone Calls Love

I was lying on my stomach flipping through TV channels when Adria came back into the room.

"Feel better?" She said coming to sit on the bed next to me.

"Much. Thanks." I said sitting up to face her and shutting the TV off. "So what do you have to tell me?"

She took a deep breath and then said, "Well I don't want you to be upset about anything I tell you. Or angry at Dane for anything I tell you. It wasn't his fault. He was sworn to secrecy."

Okay what had Dane done now?

"Okay so first off. After you left because you thought Dane didn't love you." I interrupted her.

"Well I didn't think he loved me, I just thought he cared about me enough to want to protect me instead of his pack or whatever."

She smiled like I had no clue. "And that's what everyone calls love." I tried to think about that, but she started talking again.

"You can think about that later. So after you left. Dane kind of got a little crazy. He went after the tiger that killed your father. Well tried to. He heard from another shape shifter where he could find the tiger, but it ended up being a set-up and Dane was shot about a million times, as you could probably tell. So we brought him back here, it's our safe house that Dane himself created. We tried to make him change back, but he wouldn't listen to any of us and then Michael thought that maybe you could get him to shift back."

"Are you following me?" I nodded and waited for her to continue.

"So then you show up and pretty much save his life and the rest of our lives."

I put up my hand. "Hold up. How did I save your lives?" She looked away from me for a moment then looked back.

"Here's the hard part. Dane's probably going to kill me that I'm even telling you any of this, but I thought you should know."

She paused for a moment then said, "Dane's the alpha of the pack. Basically we have to obey anything he says. So if he dies we have no king and all hell breaks loose because every shape shifter in the world will want to take his place."

I was shocked, beyond shocked. He was their leader? He was top-dog, well cat, in this situation. Dane was full of secrets. Secrets that just kept on going.

"He couldn't tell you because well because you are not engaged or married to any of us. Plus you're not exactly a shape shifter either. He isn't allowed to tell you, but I'm telling you because everything is changing and it all seems to start with you."

She looked down at her watch and said, "We should probably head down to the meeting. If you don't want to go, you don't have to."

Oh I was going. And I was going to make Dane tell me everything to my face. This didn't end here, this was just the beginning.

We walked down the stairs and saw that everyone was already there, except Dane. I took a seat next to Adria and Michael.

Dane finally graced our presence ten minutes later looking almost totally fine, except for the dark circles under his eyes.

"Hey Dane." Jonathan said as Dane took a seat next to him. They were across from us and Dane tried to catch my eye.

I locked gazes with him and he seemed to know without me even saying anything that I knew what he was. That he wasn't just another shape shifter. He was everything and commanded everyone.

He stood up and started walking towards me. "Can I talk to you in private?"

I gave a humorless laugh. "Nope. Whatever you want to say, you can say right here, right now."

"Riley." He pleaded.

"Dane. You know for someone who didn't want to hurt me, there sure seems to be a lot of secrets going around. Why couldn't you just tell me?"

My heart was shattering all over again.

"I couldn't tell you. I just… God you're going to make me go crazy." His hands fisted in his hair.

"I couldn't tell you because you already look at me as if I'm him. As if I'm the tiger that killed your father. You say your okay with us, yet you run away anytime you see one of us in our cat form. And you want me to tell you the truth. You can't handle the truth Riley. That's why I've kept secrets. I've been trying to protect you, but you turn my protection into something that you can't handle. So I don't tell you things."

He was shaking now and I was feeling like the jackass.

"Yes Riley. I'm in command. I'm their alpha, but that doesn't apply to you. You can leave anytime you want."

What he wasn't saying was that I could leave _him_. That I didn't have to get dragged any further into this mess.

I wasn't sure if that was what I wanted or not. Could I handle loosing Dane to stay out of something I was already so involved with?

"You aren't serious?" The question came from a guy wearing khaki shorts and a white polo shirt. He had dark black hair and eyes to match.

He looked menacing, especially with muscles that stood out as he crossed his arms in front of him.

Dane had turned to face the guy that had just spoken.

"You know you can't have her right? You can never have her. She's not like us. We've gone along with your fling, but I think it's time you let her go."

What was he talking about? Dane was the king, for Christ sake, I'm pretty sure he could have anyone he wanted.

"Shut up Troy. Don't say another word." Jonathan said getting to his feet. Troy got up when Jonathan did.

"You're not the boss of me." Troy said.

Jonathan smiled, "I'm not, but he is." He pointed over his shoulder towards Dane.

"He still has to obey the laws, king or not." Troy shot back.

I was beyond confused and moved over on the couch to whisper to Adria. "What are they fighting about?"

Adria drew her gaze from the fighting men and whispered back, "There's a law that says shape shifters can only marry shape shifters. Something about keeping the legacy going. So Dane can't marry you because you're not a shape shifter, but he'll marry you any way, somehow." Adria's gaze was hopeful as she turned it towards Dane.

She thought Dane would go against some stupid rules to marry me. He had to love me to do that. And I still wasn't sure if he did.

"Those rules were set in place hundreds of years ago. Things change, we change." Dane said softly, as if trying to convince himself.

"That doesn't change the law. She's not one of us; you should get rid of her." Dane's expression was one I had never seen before. It was filled with such hatred that I was almost scared.

"Say another word Troy and see what happens." Troy had sat down again, under Dane's glare.

Hah. Serves him right.

All of a sudden my phone started to vibrate and I quickly picked it up to see who was calling. It was Seth.

"Shoot!" I said too loudly, for everyone turned to stare at me.

"Sorry." I said as I got up and headed towards the back door to answer the call.

"Hi Seth I'm so so so sorry! I totally forgot about going to lunch with you. Something important came up."

Seth had wanted to take me and mom to lunch this weekend, but mom couldn't go so it would only be me and Seth and I had totally forgotten about it.

"That's okay, what was so important? Your cars still in the driveway, but you're not."

What was I supposed to tell him?

"You're not with Becky or Emily because I saw them drive past a little while ago."

Oh no. He couldn't find out. It would be disastrous. He would probably kill Dane.

"Umm yeah about that…" I tried to come up with something to say.

"Riley, don't lie to me." His quiet voice made his statement even more meaningful.

Great, now I had to tell him.

"Umm, I met this shape shifter and he got hurt so I had to come and help him and I hope you're not mad at me because I think I love him." It all came out in one rushed sentence.

It was silent for a few minutes and I was afraid he hadn't even heard what I had said.

"Let me talk to him." His voice sounded threatening.

"What?"

He sighed. "Just let me talk to him for a second." I didn't know if that was such a good idea, but I was about to find out.

I walked back into the living room and motioned for Dane to follow me. I turned around once we were near the back door and far enough away from the living room.

"Here. My brother wants to talk to you." Dane was shocked.

"He knows?" I nodded my head.

"I had to tell him. I can't lie to him, he's my brother and I couldn't think of any excuses." I pouted at his amused expression.

He put the phone to his ear and said, "Hello?"

I couldn't hear what Seth was saying so I could only gage their conversation from Dane's facial expression.

At the moment he seemed really mad, beyond pissed. That was when he had started pacing. It was several minutes later, when his face changed to quizzical and he continued to pace.

It was ten minutes later that his frown turned into a really big grin and he stopped pacing to face me.

"Really?" He said. The only words he'd said in the past fifteen minutes.

"I'd never hurt her." I rolled my eyes. He noticed and mock glared at me.

After a minute he said goodbye and hung up.

"You think you might love me?" His smile grew even bigger. The same cocky grin on his face that he had on the first time I saw him in the auditorium.

"He told you that? It was the only excuse I could think of." It was a lie, but he hadn't told me he loved me either.

"I think you're bluffing." He moved towards me in a stalking a predator kind of way.

I backed up, but suddenly hit the laundry room door; there was nowhere else for me to go.

"I couldn't think of anything else to say." I looked around for another escape root; there wasn't one.

He kept coming closer until he was right in front of me. He placed his hands on the wall behind my head, trapping me.

I looked up and he caught my gaze. "Do you love me?"

Should I tell him? What if he didn't say it back?

Adria's words entered my mind. "And that's what everyone calls love."

Adria thought he loved me, but did I trust him enough to say those three words?

"Riley." He whispered my name and leaned into me. Our foreheads were pressed together and my heart started going a mile a minute.

"I… I care about you." I said breathlessly. He chuckled, but didn't move away from me.

"Those aren't the exact words I wanted to hear, but they're good for now." He brought one of his hands to cup my face.

"Riley, I know things are really complicated right now. And I'm not going to force you to stay. Even though I'd hate for you to leave, you can. I won't stop you." He looked away from me, but it wasn't quick enough because I saw the fear in his eyes.

He was afraid I would leave him.

Before I knew what I was doing I had put my hands flat on his chest and as he turned back towards me I brought my mouth to his.

He was shocked for a second, but then took command as he licked my bottom lip asking me for permission. I quickly opened my mouth and his tongue met mine.

I moaned at the sensations his tongue was creating and he pushed me back against the wall and then put his body fully up against mine.

One of his hands was on my hip and the other was holding the back of my head. It was several minutes before I had to pull away from him to get some much needed oxygen.

We were both breathing heavily. "I'm not going to leave you, although I can't miss anymore school days."

He grimaced, but pulled me into a tight hug. We stood like that for a while until Adria interrupted.

"Dane, just wanted to let you know that Jonathan and Troy are about ready to tear each other's heads off." Dane quickly let go of me and jogged to the living room.

I followed with Adria. I entered the living room to find Troy in a head a lock by Jonathan, but Troy quickly got out of his grasp and punched him in the stomach, sending Jonathan back a few feet.

Jonathan regained his balance and charged at Troy, crashing them into the nearest wall.

"He can have whoever he wants!" Jonathan spat at him.

"Laws are laws!" Troy yelled back.

Dane had finally sized both of them up and quickly tore them apart from each other. Two other shifters helped hold them back from each other.

"That's enough! We shouldn't be fighting; we should be trying to find the tiger! Get your heads out of your asses!" Dane yelled at them.

Troy shrugged everyone off and walked out the front door. Jonathan slowly walked to sit on one of the four couches, wiping blood from his lip.

"Dane I…" Dane cut Jonathan off.

"I know you're just trying to help." Dane went and sat in a chair across the room.

"So what do we know so far about this tiger and where he might be headed?"

A girl in ripped jeans and a grey sweatshirt stepped forward and started telling everyone about where he might be headed.

My phone started vibrating again and I quickly picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Riley! So I know you don't want to tell us where you secretly ran off to with that really cute boy, but we thought you might want to turn to channel twelve and see what's going on. That's if you even have a TV, in God knows where you went." Becky's voiced rambled on and I could hear Emily asking about the cute guy Becky had mentioned.

"I promise guys I'll tell you everything… just not yet. So what are you talking about? Turn to the news channel?"

Becky hurriedly said yes. I looked around for the remote to the small TV that sat on a wooden table in the corner so that everyone could see the screen from wherever they sat.

"Where's the remote?" I asked Adria. She turned to me, then leaned over Michael who was sitting next to her and grabbed it off the end of the couch.

"Here ya go." She said tossing it to me.

"Thanks." I quickly turned the TV on and turned to channel twelve, the main news channel.

I turned up the volume, so I could here over the other voices in the room. I wasn't trying to be rude, Becky sounded really anxious.

"Okay. I'm watching. What's all this about?"

There was a commotion on the other end of the line and then Emily's voice came over the phone. "Just listen to the reporter."

I turned my attention back to the TV and saw a blonde woman speaking into the camera. The only thing you could see was a two story house that any family would live in, but you couldn't really see anything else because it was night time.

"This is the second wild dog attack. One happening almost a year ago, where a family had lost their father. This time the mother of two young boys was killed and, the father having died when they were two, are now going to live with their aunt in Colorado. It's a shame that people are letting their dogs run free at night. The police are still investigating as to where the dogs might have gone. And hopefully they are found before something like this happens again."

I had turned the volume all the way up and everyone had turned to listen. He had killed again. First my father and now two little boy's mother.

I was shocked back into the present as someone took the remote from my hand and shut the TV off.

I looked up and Dane stood in front of me. It was then that I realized I was crying. I tried to wipe the tears from my cheeks. I looked around, but everyone had left the room.

Dane sat down next to me then picked me up and put me on his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and put my head in the crook of his shoulder.

He gathered me closer and started trailing his fingers in circles on my back.

"We'll find him. He won't hurt anyone else." He whispered into my ear.

"Promise?" I whispered back.

He smiled as he placed a kiss to my forehead. "I promise."

And with that I drifted off to sleep in Dane's arms. Safe for now.


	11. Chapter 10: That's a Surprise

Chapter 10: That's a Surprise

Jonathan drove me back home that night because Dane had to stay and deal with everything. I hadn't even had time to say good bye to him.

I went up to my room and didn't bother changing into pajamas. I was exhausted from everything that had happened.

And even though I was exhausted, I couldn't sleep at all that night. I missed Dane and I was afraid the tiger would show up and try to get me too.

I must have fallen asleep eventually, because the next thing I knew someone was knocking on my bedroom door.

"Honey. It's three in the afternoon. Are you sure you feel alright?" My mom's muffled voice came through the door.

I slowly sat up and looked at my bedside clock. Wow. I didn't think I had slept that long, although I did have a reason to.

"I'm fine mom. Thanks. I just needed to get some rest. I had three tests this week so I didn't get much sleep."

The last thing I wanted to do was drag her into my crazy world, especially with dad and all.

"Oh. Okay. Let me know if you need anything."

I got out of bed and walked over to open the curtains. Bright light hurt my eyes and I quickly shut them again.

I walked over to my dresser and pulled on a pair of comfy sweatpants and my favorite grey sweatshirt.

I looked for my phone on my bedside table, but then remembered I had left it in my bag. I found it dropped carelessly on my computer desk.

I pulled my cell phone out and realized it was dead. Whoops. I forgot to charge it and with my three year old phone it took forever to charge. So I couldn't make phone calls or see who had tried to reach me until tomorrow, well I hoped by tomorrow.

Ughh tomorrow. I had school tomorrow. I'm sure Becky and Emily would not stop bothering me until I told them where I had gone.

I would have to come up with another lie. Lies seemed to consume my life at the moment and that was something I didn't like at all.

I plugged my phone in to charge and decided to get some homework done that I had totally forgotten about.

It wasn't too long after I started that I had once again fallen asleep, thinking about Dane.

* * *

"Riley!" Emily and Becky screamed as they spotted me across the school parking lot. I had just arrived and had parked when they began to bombard me with tons of questions.

"So where'd you go?"

"Who was that cute boy? You never told us."

"Are you two dating?"

I held up my hands. "Geesh guys, slow down. Breathe." I laughed at their still eager expressions to find out where I had gone and what I had done.

If they only knew the truth…

"Fine. His name is Michael and he's my cousin from Colorado. He was visiting some friends and wanted to say hi to me, since he was going to be staying down here for a couple of days."

They both seemed to believe my lie and I let out the nervous breath I had been holding.

"You never told us you had a cute cousin and he's around our age too." Becky said.

I rolled my eyes, "I never mentioned him because he lives in Colorado."

"So where'd you guys go?" Emily asked.

"Oh. Umm he wanted me to meet some of his friends, so he brought me to this neat fishing lodge place where his friends were staying."

Becky grimaced. "He wanted you to go _fishing_ with him? Eww. He's cute and all, but I refuse to go fishing."

I laughed and grabbed their arms pulling them towards our homeroom.

The day was going pretty well until five minutes before lunch ended…

"Hey I texted you this morning, but you never answered." Emily said as we sat down at a table in the lunch room.

"Oh yeah. Sorry about that. I charged my phone last night, but it still won't turn on. I'm going to have to get another one. If my mother ever lets me." I started eating the slice of pepperoni pizza that they were serving for lunch. It wasn't that bad.

"I hope we can all do something this weekend!" Becky said. Emily nodded in agreement.

"Are you doing anything?" Emily asked turning to me.

I didn't know what was going to happen with Dane and I, but I missed hanging out with my two best friends.

"Nope. I'm free. Let's hang out and have a sleep over. I'm sure my mom would love to see you guys. We can do the sleep over at my house."

They smiled and we started planning what we were going to do. It was five minutes before the bell rang for our next class to start when the secretary said there was someone waiting for me in her office.

She said that it was a friend of mine that had told her he really needed to see me. I smiled thinking Dane had come down because he wanted to see me.

I hurriedly walked with her to the front office. The guy had his back to me, but I could already tell it wasn't Dane.

The secretary walked into her office and closed her door, probably thinking it was none of her business.

They guy turned once her door was closed. He had short black hair and dark green eyes. He was at least six feet tall, the same height as Dane.

He wore a leather jacket and a pair of old jeans. Becky would definetly rate this guy a 20 on a 1 to 10 scale of how hot a guy was.

To me he seemed the dangerous sort and one not to mess with and I was sure I had never met him before, so I wondered how he knew me.

"Do I know you?"

"Actually no, but I'm a close friend of Dane's." He lightly smiled.

"Oh. Did he want you to tell me something?" I didn't have my phone, so it would be hard to reach me.

"Yeah, but it's a present and it's kind of big, so I left it in my car. It'll only take a second, so if you have to get back to class… he really wanted you to have it." Dane wanted to give me something? Wonder what it was?

"Okay. Yeah. I'll just put it in my car. Where'd you park?" He thought for a moment.

"The parking lot out front. It had a name, but I don't remember what it was."

"That's okay. It's the one my cars parked in too. Lead the way." I said, eager to see what Dane could possibly want to give me.

Maybe he was in the car and wanted to surprise me?

We walked to the parking lot in silence. I didn't know what else to ask him. We reached his car, an expensive all black Mustang hybrid.

I stopped a few yards away when I noticed a sticker on the right rear window of his car. It was small, only a few inches big. It was a circle with a wolf howling at a dark sky, but there was no moon.

When I had promised to find my father's killer, I had researched absolutely everything I could about all shape shifters.

And one of the things I had found out about shape shifters was that there were two groups within their entire race.

One was for peace and equality among shape shifters and humans and the other was against it. The two groups had symbols.

The ones that wanted peace were represented by cats and the others, in some twisted way decided to be symbolized by their opposites, wolves.

And he had a sticker of one on his car. Not good. I was a complete idiot. He wasn't one of Dane's friends, he was one of the bad guys and he was probably going to kill me.

I looked up to see if he had noticed my worried expression, but he was still walking towards the car. I quickly decided the best thing to do was sprint back towards school in the hopes that he wouldn't want to make a scene and let me go.

I was about to turn and run when his words stopped me, "You don't remember me, do you? It's been a year, but I guess a few things would be a little fuzzy."

He was smiling down at me, enjoying my fear.

"Your father was meddling in things he shouldn't. It was his own fault he died that night."

Oh God. It couldn't be. It was him. The tiger that had killed my father. Tears were forming in my eyes, but I held them back, not wanting to think he had won.

"You have two choices now Riley." He leered my name.

"You can come now. No harm done. Or you can sprint off back towards your school, but know that I don't care if I make a scene. You can either die here or later. Your choice."

This wasn't supposed to happen. Not now anyways. I didn't have my phone. No one knew where he would take me. I didn't want to die.

"Fine I'll come." I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart.

He seemed sad at my decision, but motioned for me to get into the passenger seat. I slowly climbed in and shut the door.

"Where are we going?" I asked looking out the window, trying to remember which way we headed.

He laughed, "That's a surprise."

**Cliff hanger! Sorry about that. Chapters 11 and 12 will be up later this week. =)**

**Questions? Please review!! Let me know what you think!**

**~h~**


	12. Chapter 11: Don't Dane, Just Don't

**Sorry chapter 12 is coming soon (minor setback haha, starting to study for exams… not fun at all) =(**

**But here's chapter 11! Hope you like it! Read and Review, let me know what you think! **

**Thanks,**

**~h~**

Chapter 11: Don't Dane, Just Don't

We drove for at least three hours. It was starting to get dark when we arrived at a small two story house in the middle of the woods.

Of course we would go somewhere secluded from all civilization.

He ushered me passed the front door and we entered the small living room. It had one brown couch, a coffee table in the middle and a big wide screen TV against the wall.

He hadn't touched me once since he met me. Which was kind of weird. Wouldn't he want to push me around? Hurt me or something?

But nope he waited until I walked through the front door. He waited until I walked into the living room and it was beginning to freak me out.

I didn't know what he was going to do to me and at the moment I didn't want to think about the possibilities.

"Would you like something to drink?" Was he serious?

"Would I like a drink? No I wouldn't. Stop pretending to be polite and tell me why I'm here." I said angrily. Glaring at him as he sat down on the brown couch. I was still standing near the door.

He could probably reach me in all of two seconds, so it was useless to think I could run out of here.

"I need to stop you. You're telling your friends that I'm dangerous. That I'm the bad guy, but I'm not. So the only way to make them stop, is to stop you."

Oh God. I was too young to die. I had a life ahead of me.

"Well it's either that or make you see it my way. That might be interesting. You as a shape shifter."

No. Never. I wouldn't become what he was. It would be worse than dying. And he seemed to realize this.

"Yes. I think I like that plan."

Think Riley think. What was I going to do? Wait a second…

"I have to be the same blood type as you or it won't work." I smiled triumphantly.

He smiled back, "Your AB positive. I checked. And it just so happens that I am too."

No. The world was ending. Now I wanted to crawl into a deep, dark hole and never come out. The worst nightmare on earth was coming true.

Dane had promised no one else would get hurt, but now I was, in the worst way possible. He probably didn't even know I was kidnapped. He probably thought I was doing homework or hanging with friends.

"I figure I've got an hour before Dane and his pack show up, I think ESPN is on." With that he grabbed the remote and flipped to a channel.

He was crazy. He was without a doubt insane. But his words had made me hope that Dane would come, and he would rescue me before I was turned into the tiger that had killed my father.

* * *

An hour seemed to drag on forever. He just sat on that couch, watching the stupid sports channel.

And I had no choice, but to sit there watching it as well.

The clock read five o' five pm. He finally stood up and stretched. That creepy smile still etched on his face.

"So the game begins. Follow me." He still hadn't touched me, which I was thankful for.

"No." I crossed my arms. I wasn't going down without a fight.

He seemed to think I was joking for a second, but then his face turned hard.

"It's no use arguing. You'll only get hurt." He took a step towards me.

I wasn't sure what he was planning yet, so I wasn't sure how far I should push him.

I sighed, uncrossed my arms, and walked in front of him. We walked through the hallway, past a bathroom and the kitchen to the back door of the house.

I opened it and there was a small deck, with a flight of stairs leading to the backyard. It wasn't that big of a back yard. Only half a soccer field wide, surrounded by trees.

I walked down the steps, as he followed. There was a wooden picnic table off to the right and that's where we stopped.

It was cold outside; freezing actually. February was almost over, but the icy air was still here.

The guy, who I still didn't know the name of, was looking to the side of the house, seeming to try and hear something.

I tried to listen to see what he might want to hear and it was then that I heard multiple car doors slam shut.

He turned to me and had a triumphant smile on his face. I backed away at the maliciousness in his eyes.

But I couldn't back up that far because my legs hit the picnic table behind me.

"Perfect." Before I could react he had jumped at me and pinned me down on the table. One of his hands had caught both of mine and brought them above my head.

His other hand was moving my hair off of my right shoulder. What was he doing? I tried to get my hands free, but he tightened his grip, making me whimper in pain.

"Riley!" Dane's voice made tears spring to my eyes. He had come! He was going to save me!

"Dane." I said softly. Too terrified to do much else.

The guy looked over his shoulder at Dane and I could now see Jonathan and a guy I sort of remembered from the seminar a few months ago.

"Don't." Dane said to the guy in a commanding voice.

"You don't own me cat. I don't obey to your commands." He looked back down at me and smiled.

Turning back to Dane, "She will be perfect as a tiger don't you think?"

With that he brought his head down to my shoulder and bit down hard. His human teeth pierced my skin and I cried out as a sharp knife of pain went through my shoulder.

But all of a sudden he was being thrown off of me and across the yard. I closed my eyes as the indention of where he had bitten me began to throb in pain.

"Riley. Sweet heart, look at me." Dane's lilting voice brought me back to the present.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at Dane's face above me.

"Shit! Dane, James lost him!" Jonathan yelled from across the yard.

He didn't look away from me to acknowledge that Jonathan had spoken.

All of a sudden a wave of pain seared through my shoulder and I screamed, reaching to hold my shoulder.

Dane grabbed my hand before I could and picked me up in his arms. He started carrying me towards the front of the house.

"What's happening?" I whispered to him.

He seemed like he didn't want to answer, but my whimper of pain, made him curse and say, "You're becoming one of us. In about five hours you'll shift and there's not a goddamn thing I can do about it." His whispered words were more meaningful than if he had shouted.

He wasn't just angry at the tiger that had done this, he was angry at himself too.

I couldn't think about the possibility of what was happening so I buried my head in the crook of his neck and closed my eyes, trying to pretend nothing was wrong.

When in reality everything that could go wrong…had.

* * *

We made it back to Dane's safe house around midnight. I was exhausted, but Dane wouldn't let me sleep, saying I had to stay awake until I shifted.

The bite in my shoulder only occasionally hurt now, but Dane said it would get much worse right before I shifted.

He carried me into the house and laid me down on one of the couches in the living room. Michael and Adria came in and instantly did whatever Dane told them to do.

He barked orders left and right. Adria draped a blanket around me and Michael brought me a glass of water.

Dane was near to losing it. He paced around the room. My eyes occasionally closed and every time he would say my name to make sure I was still awake.

By one thirty in the morning the pain was getting pretty bad.

"Distract me." I whispered to anyone in hearing distance, which was basically only Adria, Michael and of course Dane.

"So this one time Dane and Mikey were fooling around on this snow bank and I came out to see what they were doing. We were all around ten at the time and there was this huge oak tree we always climbed in the summer and the snow bank was under the branches of the tree. It had just snowed the night before, so I grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at the tree branch above their heads. They were laughing at me because they thought I was aiming for them, but a few seconds' later about twenty pounds of snow fell on them and they were almost all the way buried. It was hysterical." Adria explained then burst out laughing.

I joined in, imaging the looks on their faces.

Michael and Dane were frowning at Adria. "It wasn't funny for us sis." Michael said shoving her playfully.

Ten minutes had past and the pain in my shoulder was getting worse. "Is it supposed to hurt this much?" I wheezed out.

It was like a thousand knives piercing that one spot over and over again. I looked over to Dane, but he refused to look at me.

I closed my eyes trying to forget the pain. Dane called my name, but I just wanted to sleep or leave my body, anything to escape the pain.

"Riley!" He yelled my name, but I couldn't think about anything but the pain.

Someone started shaking me and I quickly opened my eyes. Dane's worried eyes met mine. I couldn't see him clearly because tears were clouding my vision.

"It hurts Dane." I whispered, blinking away the tears. They rolled down my cheeks. He brushed my loose hair away from my face.

"I know baby, I know."

"Dane, we have to get her outside." Michael said in an anxious voice from my left.

He picked me up as carefully as he could. It was a few seconds before I felt the cool air against my over heated body.

He put me down and I leaned most of my weight against him.

"Dane." Jonathan said and I was too far gone to see what he wanted. He pushed me towards Michael and after a feeble attempt at a protest, held onto Michael as Dane went to go see what Jonathan wanted.

"I've got you Riley." Michael said, trying to comfort me. "He'll be right back."

That might be too late. The pain was excruciating now. Beyond bearable. I would have fallen if Michael hadn't been holding me to him.

The world around me disappeared as something began to change. At first I was scared out of my mind at the sudden loss of everything around me, but then slowly, everything faded away.

The screaming pain in my shoulder that had spread throughout my body was gone. I felt as if everything was normal again.

Someone was gently calling my name. I tried to open my eyes and after a moment I could, but everything was different.

Adria was standing over me, but I could now see every detail of her. Details I would never be able to see if I was human.

Which meant…

I quickly jumped to my feet, only to find that I had four feet, well paws. I looked down at myself and almost stopped breathing.

I was a tiger. A black and orange tiger. Oh God.

"Riley its okay. Just stay calm. You're going to be all right." Adria said in a calm voice.

I was going to be all right, she has got to be kidding me. I was the same thing as what had killed my father, how was that okay?

Before I realized what I was doing, I started growling. Weird sensation when you're not human anymore. Everything was changed and it was freaking me out.

And where was Dane? I really needed him right now and he was nowhere in sight. How could he do this to me?

Adria seemed to understand because she said, "I'll explain everything, just change back to your human form."

Okay and how was I supposed to do that?

Adria seemed to understand my confusion because she said, "Just think about being human again. What you look like and stuff. Then you'll shift back."

Okay. Think about being human. I pictured myself and then I began to feel weightless and then I was standing again. On my own two feet, human again.

I smiled for a second; happy that I was no longer the tiger I never wanted to be. Then I started thinking about everything and my smile quickly faded.

"Okay. So don't be mad at me because I'm just the messenger. Dane left. No one knows where he went. Not even Jonathan knows where Dane went."

He left me? When I needed him most. He didn't love me. It was obvious now. He didn't care enough to stay and be there when I needed him most.

After all I did for him. I fell in love with him and he didn't love me in return. I started shaking uncontrollably. I collapse to the ground, unable to hold myself up any longer.

He didn't love me.

Those words registered in my mind over and over again. I put my hands around my waist trying to stop the pain.

He didn't love me.

"Riley…Riley listen to me. He loves you; he just needed to get away for a bit. He'll be back. He has to be back." Adria's words seemed to be trying to convince herself that Dane would come back.

Yes, he probably would, but not for me because he didn't love me.

Tears fell off my cheeks and onto the cold ground. It was still dark out all though I could see everything being a shape shifter now.

Which made me even more angry and sad. None of this was supposed to happen, yet everything had and my world was falling apart.

Adria stood in front of me, a worried expression on her face. I couldn't deal with any of this right now. I had to get away.

I turned around and started sprinting towards the trees and the woods. I heard Adria call my name a few times, but I didn't stop I just kept on going.

I pushed branches out of my face and jumped over fallen logs. I was much faster now. I ran until the tears pouring down my face, caused my vision to blur.

My breath was ragged. I stopped and sat down against a huge oak tree. I brought my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs.

I laid my head on my knees and cried. I wanted to cry until Dane was forgotten, although at the moment I didn't think that would ever be possible.

* * *

I woke to the sound of some bushes rustling in the distance. I opened my eyes and found faint light all around me. It must be dawn.

I stood up quickly as I heard the rustling get closer. A second later Jonathan and Dane came bursting through the trees a few feet away from me.

"Riley!" Dane yelled advancing towards me.

I backed up until my back hit the tree. I put my hand out to stop him.

"Don't." My hand was shaking where it touched Dane's chest.

He had a pained expression on his face. "Riley I…" I cut him off.

"Save it Dane. I just want to go home. Jonathan can you take me home?" I looked past Dane to Jonathan.

He was about to nod, when Dane growled at him. "Dane please don't do this. Just let me go, it's what you want anyways."

He seemed confused. "What are you talking about Riley?"

"Like you don't know!" I yelled at him, I walked around him and towards Jonathan.

"Take me home, please. Or at least get me out of here." Jonathan turned around and started walking back towards the house.

I started running not wanting to have to stay next to Dane for much longer; it was killing what was left of my, already broken heart.

We reached the house in less than ten minutes. Adria came out to see what was going on.

"Riley!" She yelled, rushing to me and wrapping me in a huge hug. "You're all right, thank God!"

I managed a small smile then whispered in her ear, "Can you take me home? Now?" She pulled away and looked behind me, probably at Dane.

"Umm, yeah if it's what you want. Although someone's going to have to stay with you for a while. We're not allowed to leave new shape shifters alone."

Oh.

"Okay. Fine. Then you can come stay with me. There's plenty of room, because Seth's at college now and only comes home occasionally."

She smiled, "This is going to be great! I haven't been able to get away from this group in a while. I'll go pack my bag and meet you at the car in five minutes."

With that she ran off towards the house. I smiled at her excitement. It would be fun to have her around for a while. Maybe she could get me to stop thinking about Dane too.

Speaking of which…

I turned around and spotted him glaring at something on the ground. His eyes softened when he saw me looking at him.

"Riley." He moved towards me and another wave of betrayal went through me. I thought he loved me, but he didn't.

It hurt worse than becoming the same thing that had killed my father.

"Don't Dane. Just don't." I said in the most unfeeling voice I could do at the moment. Hoping he wouldn't see how much he had truly hurt me.

I heard Adria call my name from the driveway and I quickly ran to the car and got into the passenger seat.

Adria started the car and headed towards home. I looked in the rearview mirror and I could see Dane staring back at me.

His face only reminded me of what he had done.

He didn't love me.

**p.s. now that I think about it I might try and get chapters 12, 13, and 14 done by the end of this week and then post all 3 at the same time so you guys have more to read at one time, just a possibility haha**

**if you have an idea let me know!**


	13. Chapter 12: Near Death Experiences

**Hey so sorry for the long wait!! Here's 3 more chapters =)**

**So the whole imprinting thing is actually explained in chapters 13 and 14**

**And I've also added Seth's Point of View to the story…**

**I hope you guys like it!!**

**Tell me what you think… review!**

**Thanks ~h~**

Chapter 12: Near Death Experiences

We had been driving for an hour, quiet music playing in the background as I looked out the window.

"So who's Seth?" Adria's voice brought me back to the present.

"Oh umm he's my brother. He's a sophomore in college." Holy mother of God. Seth. Seth my brother. The brother who hates shape shifters. _Well I wasn't sure if he hated Dane anymore_, but still I had become something he hates.

What was I going to do?

"I can't go home. There's no way I can face Seth now."

Adria's concerned gaze turned towards me for a second and then back to the road. "What do you mean you can't face Seth, he's your brother."

I was going to have to explain what had happened a year ago. "So you know how you guys have been searching for this tiger and it kidnapped me and all? Well he's the same tiger that killed my father a year ago. And Seth, my mom, and I all saw it happen."

"Oh. Well he's still your brother so he has to love you no matter what. And if he doesn't see the sense in all of this at first… I'll make him see it. Don't worry I've got your back. That's what friends are for right?" She smiled over at me.

I nodded and smiled in return, "Thanks Adria. You've been such a good friend to me. Speaking of which why do you guys have to stay with a new shape shifter?"

She seemed to not want to respond. Her smile slowly fading from her face. She gripped the steering wheel tighter.

She sighed loudly and then seemed to have to force herself to explain.

"Well you see once someone is turned there's a fifty percent chance that your body won't take to the whole shape shifting part. I've only seen it happen once. You get this really high fever and I don't know how it truly feels, but it's bad. And the only way for someone to survive it is to have another shape shifter with them."

She looked over at my shocked gaze and quickly added, "If you don't get a fever within a week then you won't get it at all. I'm not worried though, I'm sure you won't get it."

I might die. Just add that to the list of near death experiences I've already had this week.

My life just seemed to be getting better and better…

* * *

We reached my house late Saturday night. The house was dark and my mom had left a note saying that she had gone down to visit her brother and Florida for a few weeks.

She did this a few months ago, when she was feeling really sad and missing dad. I just hoped Uncle Ronny could help her not be so depressed.

While mom thought about dad constantly I did the opposite. I tried not to think about him, so that I wouldn't break down.

I already had once and I was afraid if I thought about him too much I would break down again.

I showed Adria the spare bedroom across from my room. The spare bedroom and my brother's bedroom were connected by a bathroom in between.

My parents didn't want to waste money on a separate bathroom so they just connected the two.

It was really late so we said goodnight and then went to bed. I tried to forget about Dane. Erase him from my mind, but it was harder to do than I thought.

* * *

**Seth's Point of View**

It was two in the morning when I heard someone walking down the stairs. Mom had gone to Florida so it obviously wasn't her and it wouldn't be Riley because she knew every creak in the stairs almost as well as I did.

So who could it be?

I slowly got out of bed and walked to my door. I turned the handle and soundlessly opened it. It was pitch black in the hallway. I couldn't see a damn thing.

I cautiously walked down the stairs stepping over the second to last step where the noisy creak was.

I got to the bottom and stopped so that my eyes could fully adjust. The intruder wasn't in the living room because it was in full view from where I was standing, so they were either in the den/computer room or the kitchen.

Before I could decide which place to check first I heard one of the kitchen cabinets being opened.

The kitchen.

I slowly crept towards the wall and then craned my neck around to see into the kitchen. There was a small window above the sink that let some light into the room.

I was expecting the intruder to be some large, big man, but the person facing the sink was 5'6 at the most and definitely wasn't large.

They had a sweatshirt on that covered their head, so I couldn't tell if it was just a very small man or a woman.

What was I supposed to do now? The person wasn't stealing anything. They were getting a glass of water.

But maybe they didn't think anyone was in the house, so they could take all the time they wanted?

I slowly stepped into the kitchen, trying to be as quiet as possible. I crept toward the sink and the person.

I was a few feet away when the person turned. She saw me and the next thing I know I was soaking wet.

It was a girl. She looked to be around my age; from what I could see of her face. She had light blue eyes, almost a swirling grey color.

She seemed to be shocked into place so I slowly flicked on the light next to the sink, illuminating the room and us.

I turned back to her and she seemed to be brought out of her stunned state.

"Don't sneak up on people like that!" She said as she placed the now empty cup in the sink. She turned back to me taking her hood off as she did so.

She had strawberry blonde hair that flowed to the middle of her back. It wasn't pin straight, but close to it. She was stunningly beautiful.

"Yeah I usually sneak up on everyone in my house. It's quite fun actually you should try it sometimes. Especially the part where they throw water on you." I said sarcastically to her.

It was her own fault. She wasn't even supposed to be in my house. "Who are you anyways?"

She had been glaring at me, but she must have realized something because her frown turned to a smile and she held out her hand.

"Hi I'm Adria; you must be Seth, Riley's brother." She knew Riley?

"Riley's home?"

She nodded. "Yeah we got here last night. I'm staying with her for a while, being friends and all."

She was home and she didn't even tell me. Something has been going on with her. I just couldn't figure out what.

"Yeah I'm Seth. Sorry about scaring you. I…" She cut me off.

"I wasn't scared, I was startled." She said glaring at me again, waiting for me to contradict her.

"Scared is scared and babe... you were definitely scared."

Her face turned from mild annoyance to enraged. "Well it figures you would know what scared is. You know there are some self help books on being scared. I'll buy one for you some time."

A smile crept over my face. I hadn't had this much fun arguing since before dad died.

Before I could retort back a high pitched scream could be heard upstairs.

"Riley!" I yelled and raced towards the stairs. Adria following close behind me.

I pushed open her door and saw her curled up on her bed, blankets thrown off her as she held her stomach.

"Riley, Ry what hurts?" I kneeled by her bed and gently touched her shoulder. She was warm, too warm.

"Damn sweetie you're burning up!"

She whimpered in pain. That's it; we were going to the hospital. I grabbed Riley's phone off the bedside table and started dialing, but before I could hit send Adria grabbed it out of my hand.

"She can't go to a hospital." She moved and sat on the bed. Riley looked over at her.

"You said you didn't think this would happen." What were they talking about?

"I know. I was hoping it wouldn't, but now it has. So I know you're going to hate me, but I called Dane. He's on his way."

Dane? Oh right the guy that loved my sister. The shape shifter.

Riley screamed in pain again. Curling into a tight ball.

"She has to go to the hospital!" I said grabbing for the phone again. She got to it first.

"No. She can't. Just wait for Dane to get here. If you want her to live, you'll wait until he gets here."

She was going to die!? I had had enough with this girl.

I grabbed her arm, making sure I didn't hurt her of course and walked until her back was against the wall. She was trapped; she would have to tell me everything now.

"What's going on? The truth." She seemed uncertain and looked towards Riley then back to me. For a second she seemed vulnerable, but then her steely gaze was back on her face and she was glaring at me.

"I can't tell you. You'll just make things worse for her if I do. So let's just wait for Dane to come and then once Riley's fine, I'm sure she'll tell you everything."

My hands were on her waist and she slowly pushed my hands away and stepped around me towards Riley.

"When do you think Dane's going to get here?" I said leaning against the wall, feeling helpless because I couldn't do anything to make Riley feel better.

"About an hour or so."

"Let's just hope that's soon enough." I heard her whisper under her breath.

I couldn't lose Riley too.

**So what'd you think? Good? Bad? Please review!!**


	14. Chapter 13: I Can't

Chapter 13: I Can't

Everything hurt. My entire body was in flames. I felt on fire and anything that touched my skin made it worse.

I knew that Adria and my brother were in the room, but I couldn't concentrate on what they were saying.

All I could think about was the pain. And how once again Dane wasn't here. All of this was his fault.

And he wasn't here.

Although why would he be here? He didn't care about me.

Another piercing pain shot through me and I screamed. When was this going to end?

I whimpered thinking the pain would never stop.

Then I felt the bed shift and someone was kneeling above me, almost on top of me.

"Riley. Riley sweet heart open your eyes. Look at me."

Dane! Dane was here!

But why would he be here? He didn't love me, so why was he here?

Maybe I was dreaming.

I slowly opened my eyes, praying the little movement wouldn't spark any more pain than I was already in.

I saw his face. And it nearly undid me. He really was here.

"Riley thank God." He smiled, but seemed like he was in pain.

"Why are you here?" I managed to whisper.

He reached out to touch my shoulder and I flinched thinking that it would hurt just like when Seth or Adria had brushed my shoulder.

But when his hand touched my hair and gently moved it out of my face there was no pain.

"I don't want you here." I lied and he seemed to know it.

"I'm not going anywhere. I love you." He didn't love me, he left me.

"No." I shook my head forgetting it would cause me more pain. I whimpered as my head felt like it would explode.

"I love you Riley."

"No you don't. You left me when I needed you the most. You don't love me. You would have been there if you had."

Tears fell down my face as I said those words, believing they were the truth.

He ran his hand through his hair. "Riley I thought you wouldn't want me there. I mean you were turning into the monster that killed your father and it was all my fault. So I left."

He left because he _did_ love me.

"I thought you didn't love me."

He smiled down at me, but before he could say anything else pain so bad I thought I would pass out hit me and I tried to curl into a ball.

Trying to make it stop.

"Dane. Make it stop." I said folding my arms across my stomach as the pain continued to spread through my body.

"Okay sweet heart. Which side did he bite you?"

What? Was this the time to ask where he had bitten me?

"What kind of question is that?" I whimpered, closing my eyes as more pain ripped through me.

"Just tell me."

"My left shoulder." His hands turned me so that I was lying flat on my back. One of his legs was in between mine.

He moved my hair off of my shoulder and pulled my shirt down my arm so he could see it. This was supposed to solve everything?

"Dane…" He looked down at me and then to my shoulder. It was then that I noticed Adria and my brother still in the room.

"I have to bite you." Dane's words stopped me.

"What?" I looked from Dane, to Seth, then back to Dane.

"I'm not letting you die. The only way your body will accept you being a shape shifter is if I bite you. There's something in all shape shifters saliva that makes your body realize what's happened. It's the only way to keep you alive. I'm not letting you die Riley."

Well that's just weird, but if it would save me…

"Seth leave. Adria get him out of here." I said looking at Seth's shock face at what Dane had just said.

Adria grabbed Seth's arm and had to drag him out of my room. She closed the door behind them.

All I could hear now was my ragged breathing. The pain was still excruciating. I tensed as he lowered his head to my shoulder.

"It's going to hurt a lot worse for a few seconds. Then the pain will stop." I could feel his breath against my shoulder and just as another wave of pain hit he bit down on the same spot the tiger had bitten me.

I screamed so loud I was sure the entire neighborhood had heard me. My world exploded around me as pain consumed me and took my breath away.

It felt as if a lifetime had passed before I could open my eyes. My room was covered in darkness and I fumbled for the light on my bedside table.

Before I could reach it I came in contact with Dane who was lying next to me.

He was still here! He hadn't left me!

I quickly wrapped my arms around him and laid my head down on his chest. I heard him chuckle above me.

"You're still here." I said smiling.

"I'm never leaving you again. Riley I'm so sorry…" Dane was interrupted as the door was thrown open and Seth came barging in. Adria trying unsuccessfully to stop him.

"Sorry I tried he's really strong when he's pissed." She piped in as Seth turned on the light above my bed.

"Dane I'd like to speak with you. Now." Seth was beyond enraged, he looked like he was ready to kill something and it was probably Dane at the moment.

"Seth wait. Let me explain everything." I tried to sit up, but my head started spinning and I fell back on my pillows.

"Okay that's not such a good idea."

Dane walked towards the door.

I tried to make Seth understand. "Seth let me explain. It wasn't his fault. He's going to say it was, but it wasn't."

Dane blamed himself for what had happened, but he couldn't control everything, even if he was the king and all.

Seth seemed to look right through me as he headed out the door with Dane.

He couldn't even look at me. I had turned into the one thing he hated.

"Don't worry he'll see reason eventually. He has to, you're his sister." Adria said walking over to sit next to me.

"I hope so." I sighed wondering if he would ever be able to see me as he had before everything changed.

"And don't worry there's always option B to make him see reason."

"What's that?"

"Me." She said, still smiling.

* * *

**Seth's Point of View**

She was a shape shifter now. She was the same thing that had killed my father. The same thing I despised.

Dane said it was his fault. He shouldn't have gotten her involved in everything, but I knew that wasn't true.

She had gotten way too involved the night our dad died.

Dane loved her. I could see it in his eyes. I didn't know if I liked that. Maybe it would be good for her.

To find someone to love. She lost dad, she deserved someone to love. But she was still my little sister and I was wary of any guy she liked.

The whole shape shifting thing changed everything.

I sighed and sat down on the living room couch. I told Dane if he loved Riley enough he would let her make the decisions about her life.

And he couldn't influence her in any way. She was only eighteen. She still had to get through college.

Dane could be in her life to an extent. Of course Dane hadn't taken that remark very kindly.

He had walked away and probably went back to check on Riley.

I didn't know what to do now. I guess wait until Riley was ready to talk… about everything. Everything she kept from me.

I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the knots there that had formed from all the stress of last night.

Then I felt someone else's hands there massaging my neck and shoulders for me. "Riley thinks you hate her now."

Adria.

I still didn't know what to think of her. Although her hands were amazing.

"I don't hate her. I love her. She's my sister." Her hands stopped moving and she sighed loudly.

"Yeah well not looking at her is kind of a sign that you hate her. That you see her as something different now. As something bad. She's looks up to you Seth and now you've made her feel like she's something wrong. You call yourself her brother…"

I know I hadn't been able to look at Riley. I just… I didn't want to think of her as different now, that everything would change, but it looked like it was too late now.

I still loved Riley. I always would. I guess I just needed to take some time to get used to the whole idea of shape shifters.

"God Shape shifters sure know how to ruin someone's life." I didn't know I had said the last part out loud until I was unceremoniously pushed off the couch and onto the living room floor.

Adria came to stand over me. "I know I didn't just hear you say that." Her eyes looked venomous as I stared up at her.

"I didn't mean to say that out loud." Wrong words to say at the moment.

Her eyes seemed to get narrower as she put her foot against my throat and pressed down, cutting off my air supply.

"Do you have a death wish? The only reason I'm not going to kill you is because Riley wouldn't like that." She folded her arms in a defiant gesture.

Well I wasn't going to let her have all the power in this well, weird relationship we were having, so I swiftly locked my arms around her leg and twisted so that she fell on her back and then I quickly rolled on top of her so she couldn't move.

I trapped her arms above her head with my hands and smiled triumphantly.

"You know for a shape shifter you're kind of slow." I said chuckling as she pouted.

"I didn't think you would hurt a woman, but I guess I was wrong." I hurt her? God Seth, you don't throw down a girl and take her hostage.

What is wrong with me?

It had to be something about this girl beneath me. Ever since I met her I couldn't get her out of my head.

"You're hurt? I didn't mean to. God, I'm sorry." I eased my weight off of her and the next thing I know she has me pinned below her.

"Just kidding." She said smiling down at me.

Now I was the one pouting. "That was mean. I really thought I hurt you."

She shrugged, "I'm just a really good liar." She said still smiling.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you lying bad?" After the shock of her pinning me down, I came to realize how closely her body was pressed against mine.

It felt right and I couldn't help, but move my hands so they were against her hips. I rubbed them up her sides and felt her shudder at my touch.

"Stop." She said breathlessly, but didn't try to stop my hands as the climbed up her back. I looked up at her saw her eyes dilate.

One of my hands moved to the back of her head and I slowly pushed it down until our lips were merely centimeters away.

The only sound that could be heard was our ragged breathing as we stared at each other.

"I can't." She whispered.

"Sure you can." I said moving a tiny bit forward. Towards her mouth. It was then that she jumped off of me.

"I said stop!" She seemed panicked. Her eyes were slightly misted and I was confused as hell.

"I have to go." And with that she walked out the front door.

Women were too damned confusing.


	15. Chapter 14: To Do Lists

**Here's chapter 14. **

**I don't think I'll be able to write anymore chapters for a week because I have exams, but my winter break starts on my birthday December 19****th**** =) **

**So I'll be able to write more then**

**Thanks ~h~**

Chapter 14: To do Lists

**Riley's Point of View**

It had been a week since I was turned into a shape shifter. I was still coming to terms with it so I haven't shifted yet.

I had to start trying to go back to a normal life and that first started with school. The principle had called and told me if I didn't start getting my grades up because of all the school I missed, I wouldn't be graduating.

So now I was on the couch in the living room trying to study for the two biology tests I had missed while being "sick".

I had a huge stack of index cards in my hand and I couldn't seem to memorize any of them. The test was in two days. Monday morning.

I wish this weekend would last forever.

I was getting thirsty so I walked into the kitchen and put my note cards on the counter and grabbed a glass and started filling it with water.

I shut the water off and was about to turn around when I felt Dane come up behind me. He put his hands on my hips and pressed himself against me.

"Riley." He whispered my name.

He moved my hair of my shoulder and started kissing my neck. I leaned back into him as he continued to kiss up my neck.

I moaned as sensations whirled through me. Then he did something unexpected. He bit down right above where he and the tiger had bitten me.

Not hard enough to draw blood and it didn't hurt. It was the opposite of pain. It felt amazing. He began to suck and it nearly undid me.

I gasped and my eyes rolled back in my head. My heart had sped up and if he didn't stop soon… if only Seth wasn't still in the house.

"D…Dane stop. Please s…stop." It was a few seconds before he actually did. He moved back a few steps so I could turn. My legs were shaking as I came to face him.

I shouldn't be this shaken up over a simple thing like that. What was going on?

"Dane what just happened?" My voice was still breathless.

His gaze dropped from mine. I stepped forward and put my hands on his chest. He looked down at me. "No more secrets Dane. You promised."

That seemed to make his decision for him. "You have to promise you won't freak out or think of it as a bad thing."

Oh God. What now?

"There's this thing all shape shifters do when they find the one their meant to be with for the rest of their lives. Like a mate. And they know when they've found their mate when they want to bite them like I just had to you."

He looked away, fear in his eyes.

"So we're meant to be together? And you know because you wanted to bite me?"

He seemed panicked now. "Yes, but I loved you before that. I knew I would fall in love with you when you guessed the rarest breed."

"When I guessed you." I said smiling up at him.

"Yeah when you guessed me." He whispered, leaning down to kiss me.

"Yo the two love birds lip locking by the sink, could you please get a room." Adria's annoyed voice filled the room.

"What's up your butt?" Michael's easy going laugh filled the room as well. I laughed at Dane's equally annoyed face at being interrupted.

"Hi Michael! When'd you get here?" I said, walking over and giving him a big hug. He picked me up and swung me around.

"Ahh Michael! Put me down!" He chuckled, but did as I asked.

"A few minutes ago. I was bored and thought it might be fun to see what you guys were up to and plus I wanted to make sure you were all right."

"Aww thanks Mikey." I said ruffling his hair. He seemed like such the little brother to me.

Seth came into the kitchen and sat down at the island in the middle of the room.

"Who wants pizza?" He said holding up the menu from the local pizzeria in town.

Everyone shouted yes, except Adria who mumbled, "I'm not hungry." Then walked out of the room.

Adria was rarely in a bad mood, so something was up.

"She's been like that for almost a week." Dane said to no one in particular.

"Do you know anything?" I asked Michael, her twin ought to know something, but he shook his head.

"No we usually tell each other everything, but the few times we've spoken she's barely said a word."

I looked over at Seth and saw that he was still staring at where Adria had been standing.

What was going on?

"I guess she just needs some space right now." Michael said looking sad.

I nodded, "Yeah maybe." Looking over at Seth's pained face.

* * *

"Hey I have to go meet Jonathan, but I wanted to tell you something before I left." Dane said as he found me back on the couch studying those note cards that refused to help me in any way.

He sat down and picked me up, placing me in his lap.

"Okay, shoot."

"So I told you about the whole biting thing, but I didn't tell you that I have to do it every few days. Otherwise I'll get weak and everything will kind of hurt."

Every few days was more than fine with me. It felt amazing when he did it. I wonder if it would every time.

"Will it…will it feel like…" He smiled knowingly, "Yes it will feel like that every time."

That is definitely one of the perks of shape shifters. Most definitely.

* * *

**Seth's Point of View**

It was once again 2 in the morning and I couldn't sleep or stop thinking about Adria.

I couldn't stop thinking about last week when she ran away from me.

She had seemed so vulnerable. She looked at me as if I was the one that could break her in half, not the other way around.

She was the shape shifter not me.

I got out of bed unable to lie there and do nothing. I went to my window and looked out over our front yard.

I looked up at the dark sky. The moon was hidden by equally dark clouds. Few stars littered the sky.

I looked back down at our driveway and it was then that I spotted Adria walking down the driveway and onto the street.

She had on jeans a white sweatshirt and blue vest. I could see her breath as she continued to walk… where I had no clue.

But I was going to find out.

I quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and black shirt I found lying on the ground. I slipped on my shoes and raced down the stairs and out the door.

I jogged down the driveway and onto the street. I spotted her half way down the street. I picked up my speed.

"Hey! Adria!" I yelled. She turned back at the sound of her voice and then her eyes turned panicked. She started sprinting away from me. Around the corner and onto another street.

What the hell?

I sprinted after her. I kept up with her for three more streets. The fourth street was the one with the woods behind it and it was where she was headed.

I was very confused at this point because she was a shape shifter, yet I was keeping up with her. She didn't want to be caught so why not just lose me with her speed?

I was slowly gaining on her; she looked back one last time before she entered the woods in front of her. I was now running as fast as I could and I entered the woods seconds behind her.

"Adria wait!" I yelled to her. She didn't pause, just kept on going.

I was about to reach her when she stopped and I almost barreled into her. I quickly stepped around her then turned around to face her.

We were both breathing hard. I looked at her face, but she refused to meet my gaze. Her skin looked paler than normal.

I stepped towards her. "Don't." She said putting out her hand to stop me.

"Hey, are you all right?" I said moving closer to her, ignoring her request.

I put my hand to her forehead and realized she was burning up.

"Are you guys supposed to get this hot?" I asked putting my hands on either side of her face, making her look at me.

She looked like she wanted to protest, but didn't have any strength to do so.

"That's it I'm calling Dane." I pulled out my cell phone and dialed his number.

"Hey Dane. Something's wrong with Adria. Could you come and get us? We're four streets over on Merrimack drive. Yeah she's burning up. Okay. Thanks bye." Dane seemed worried and said he be right there.

I just hoped he knew what was wrong, cause I sure didn't.

* * *

We got back to the house and Dane put her down on the living room couch. Riley and Michael had come to see what had happened.

Riley got her a cold wash cloth to put on her forehead. I hovered nearby, not sure why I was so worried about her. We had only met a week ago and barely spoken for most of it.

"Hey Riley, Michael could you guys give us a moment?" Dane asked from where he was sitting on the couch next to Adria.

"Umm yeah, sure no problem." Riley said, seeming to understand. Michael was reluctant to leave his sister, but Riley coaxed him into going.

"Why am I still here?" I asked because I was the only non-shape shifter here. Everyone else had more of a clue than I did.

Dane looked over at me and was about to speak when Adria slapped his arm. "Don't you dare say a word Dane!"

Dane looked apologetically at her, "He has to know Adria. It's not fair to him if you don't tell him. And if you don't the pain will only get worse."

The pain was my fault?

Dane turned to me. "Okay so I'm just going to explain from my situation and hopefully you'll get it. Do you know anything about shape shifters?"

I shook my head.

"Okay well you know I love your sister and shape shifters have a term, kind of like a wife and husband, but it's called a mate. Mates are for life and you only have one. Riley's my mate and I'm hers. What you don't know is that I have to bite her, not hard, I would never hurt her, but every few days I have to or this is what happens." Dane pointed to Adria.

"So you bite Riley because it's a mate thing?"

He nodded, "Yeah it's something in our genetics. No one's ever fully comprehended it. Not even shape shifters."

Oh. This just got more interesting.

"So if you don't bite Riley, you'll be really weak and have a fever?" So that's why I was able to keep up with Adria so easily.

"So why doesn't Adria bite her mate. Where is he anyways, when she needs him?"

Dane looked straight at me. Pointedly.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh holy shit.

"I'm her mate." I said in a barely audible tone.

I looked over at Adria. You would think finding the love of your life would be a happy moment, but Adria was anything but happy.

And so was I.

"She has to bite you." Dane said.

"Well obviously that wasn't high up on her to do list." I said through clenched teeth.

Adria started to move off the couch. She pushed Dane away as he tried to stop her. She finally stood, holding her head because she probably had a huge headache.

She walked slowly towards the front door as if meaning to leave. I got to the door before her, blocking her escape route.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I whispered to her.

She looked like she was about to cry. Way to go Seth. I chided myself.

"Bite me Adria. We'll figure everything out later."

She shook her head. This must have caused a lot of pain because she whimpered and fell forward into me.

I caught her and wrapped my arms around her.

"Bite me." I whispered into her ear.

I looked up to see where Dane had gone, but he was nowhere in sight.

I felt her go on her tiptoes and one of her hands went up to hold the side of my face. She brought her mouth to where my shoulder stopped and my neck began.

I could feel her breath as it warmed my skin. Her lips skinned over me and I shuddered at the feeling.

I tensed as I felt her open her mouth. "It won't hurt." She whispered and then she bit down and my world exploded in a wave of hot wild sensations.

It was pure lust that came over me and I hugged her tighter to me. She gasped and arched into me.

It was a few seconds before she pulled away.

She still refused to look at me.

I brought my hand under her chin, making her look at me.

"The last guy I fell in love with broke my heart and killed everyone I loved. So no… biting you was _not_ high up on my to do list."

**Review!! =)**


	16. Chapter 15: When You're Running

**Hey everyone so here's chapter 15!! **

**I probably won't be able to update another chapter until Thursday or Friday. **

**I have exams Tuesday and Wednesday =( **

**So I hope you like this chapter!!**

**Please REVIEW and tell me what you think!!**

**Thanks ~h~**

Chapter 15: When Running There's Always a Chance You'll Slip and Fall

**Riley's Point of View**

I woke to the sound of my alarm going off. I quickly slammed my hand down over the off button and then rolled back under the covers.

I sighed in relief as my room fell back into a quiet lull. Why did I even set my alarm in the first place?

"Riley! Get your ass up out of bed! You're going to be late for school!" Seth's voice yelled from the outside of my door.

Oh right, school.

I slowly got up and looked towards my dresser. I was debating on just going back to sleep, but if I missed any more school it would be disastrous.

I picked out a pair of jeans and a cute white shirt that Becky had picked out for me at the mall a few months ago. I wrapped a brown scarf around my neck and then went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and hopefully fix my hair… not that I thought that would be possible.

Twenty minutes later I headed down to the kitchen, looking semi-presentable, but still half asleep.

I walked in and saw Seth making pancakes at the stove and Michael sitting at the island in the middle anxiously waiting for some.

"Hey Riley!" Michael said in a voice that was way too loud for this early in the morning.

"Michael no one is this energetic in the morning."

He smiled at my sour expression. "Well I'm not letting you ruin my mood, plus Seth's making pancakes."

"I warn you now if you don't take your share of pancakes now he will steal them." Adria said walking into the kitchen and sitting down beside me.

"Good to know." I said looking back to Seth who was putting a pile of pancakes onto a serving plate.

"Here ya go." Seth said turning and placing them closer to where Adria and I were sitting so that Michael had to get up and get some himself, giving us enough time to get enough for ourselves.

Michael literally took the rest of the pancakes on the plate. My mouth dropped open at the amount on his plate.

"You're seriously not eating all of those."

He shrugged, "I'm a growing boy."

I shook my head and started eating my own small portion of pancakes.

It was pretty silent as we all started eating. It seemed a little too quiet.

"Seth when do you have to go back to school?"

He looked up from the pancake he was about to eat.

"Oh. I have two more weeks off and then its midterms." He went back to eating.

"What are you guys going to do while I'm at school then?" I asked all of them.

Seth shrugged and Michael looked over at Adria. I turned to Adria.

"Not sure yet. What is there to do around here anyways?"

I thought about that for a moment. "Umm there's the movie theatre and there's a mall in the middle of town. Umm… Seth any suggestions?"

He looked startled for a moment then said, "Yeah there's bowling, parks, sorry small town, there's really nothing exciting to do."

He put his plate in the sink and headed towards the front door. "Wait where are you going? Aren't you going to show them around?"

Seth seemed like that was the last thing he ever wanted to do. I hadn't spoken to him ever since Adria had gotten sick.

Dane said he couldn't say anything and Adria would tell me when she's ready to, so I had let it go.

"We have a car I'm sure we can find our way around town without his help." Adria said taking a sip of the cranberry juice in front of her.

Seth looked over at Adria, but she quickly looked away. What was going on with those two?

"Oh. Okay. Well I have to get going, but I'll see you guys later." I hopped off my chair, put my plate in the sink, and grabbed my bag off the floor.

I passed Seth who was still standing near the front door. "Bye Seth." I said as I walked out the door and towards my car.

"Bye Ry." I barely heard his acknowledgement.

I got to school just as the first bell rang. I quickly shut my car door and raced to English class. I found a seat next to Emily.

She seemed paler than normal. "Are you okay?" I asked quietly as class began.

She looked over at me, "Yeah, I think I might have a cold though. I hate being sick at school." She said sniffling and reaching for a pack of tissues in her bag.

I reached into my own bag and pulled out my English notebook, but as I did so my pencil fell onto the floor.

I went to pick it up, but an unfamiliar hand got to it first.

"Here you go." I looked up as a guy with light blonde hair and grey eyes handed me my pencil.

"Oh thanks." I said smiling politely at him.

"I'm Tristan." He said smiling.

"Riley. Are you new here?"

He nodded, "Yeah I just transferred here a week ago. I still haven't figured out my schedule though." He said chuckling at his own dilemma.

"That's okay. I've been here my whole life and gone to this school since six grade. If you have any questions just let me know."

He nodded again. "Thanks."

I turned back around and tried to actually pay attention to what the teacher was saying. I couldn't wait for school to be over. It was definitely not my favorite thing.

* * *

I walked with Emily to lunch because Becky wasn't at school because she had the flu which I hoped Emily wasn't getting.

None of us had talked about me missing our sleep over date. I wasn't ready to talk about it and I guess neither were they.

I would have to tell them the truth eventually, but for now I was just trying to be as normal as a shape shifter could get.

We sat down with our turkey sandwiches and began eating.

"Riley right?" I looked up to find Tristan standing next to our table with a tray of food.

"Yeah. Hi. Do you want to sit?"

"Sure thanks. I don't really know anyone here yet." He uncapped his water bottle and took a sip.

"That's okay. Where are you from?" He had a dark tan so I was thinking definitely one of the sunny states.

"Well mostly Florida. We move around a lot, my brother and I, for his job. It sucks, but we need the money."

I felt bad for anyone who had to move around a lot and go to a new school every time. Meeting new friends was always hard and leaving old ones behind too.

"So you must have surfed a lot right?" Emily chimed in, distracting him from his sad expression.

He brightened up at that. "Yeah all the time and I was actually pretty good at it too, before we had to move when I was fourteen. That's when all the moving started. But any sport suites me, although surfing is my favorite."

His face lit up as he talked about surfing and all the other sports he loved. Emily was intrigued because she was a sports fanatic too.

"You should try snowboarding. It's really popular here and plus it's kind of like surfing, just on snow so I'm sure you'll catch on quickly."

Well they had both just found a best friend in each other.

The lunch bell rang and we headed to our classes. We showed Tristan to the right history room then we all went our separate ways.

Tristan and I had the same last free and since Becky wasn't here I decided to hang out with him in the library.

He turned out to be a really funny guy. He made me crack up every five minutes, but the thing I didn't get was whenever we got to talking about a personal subject matter, especially about his brother he tried to blow my questions off.

I let it go saying it was his business, not mine.

We met up with Emily and walked out of school together. I said I'd see them tomorrow and pulled out of the school parking lot.

I saw them still standing there talking to one another as I pulled onto the street towards home.

I couldn't help but smile.

* * *

I closed my car door and was about to take a few steps towards the house when I was swept up by Dane.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close to him. He buried his face against my neck, and then gently bit down.

I gasped as sensations hit me. My heart sped up and I closed my eyes.

All of a sudden he pulled away.

"What the? Riley where have you been?" He looked panicked and I started panicking because he was supposed to be the calm one.

"A… at school. Why? What's wrong?" I looked up at him, hoping he would give me a straight answer.

"Were you with Keenan?" Who was Keenan? I voiced my question.

"He's the tiger that bit you. I can smell him all over you. Why were you with him?" What was he talking about?

"Dane I haven't seen him since he bit me! I don't know what you're talking about. I think I would remember if I ever saw him again!"

He looked around wildly for a few seconds before grabbing my arm and tugging me towards the house.

"Dane! Stop! I can walk into my own house by myself thank you very much." He reluctantly let my hand go and let me walk into the house first. I was headed for the stairs up to my room when he grabbed me from behind and picked me up.

"Dane!"

He walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, me in his lap.

He nipped at my neck and my breathing became ragged. The effect he had on me was amazing and uncontrollable.

"Just… just stay here with me for a few minutes…please." He pleaded in my ear.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled myself closer to him.

"Help! Dane! Anyone!" Michael's frantic voice had Dane jumping up off the couch, placing me gently on my feet and racing towards Michael's voice.

Michael almost collided with Dane in the front hallway.

"What is it?" Dane asked getting Michael's attention.

"Oh Thank God! There's this group of guys and they started fighting us and I think there from Keenan's group and she said for me to go get help. And I didn't want to leave her but she made me and now she could be dead or hurt really badly or…"

"Michael calm down. She's going to be fine. Where is she now?"

Michael looked over at me. "It… was something like… Whisper or Breezy Tree or something…"

Oh he was talking about the camp ground near the edge of town. Our family used to go hiking up there all the time. Winter was usually the prettiest time of year to go, even though it was a lot colder.

"Whispering Pines Campgrounds."

* * *

**Seth's Point of View**

I pulled into the graveled parking lot of Whispering Pines Campgrounds and shut my car off. I usually came here when I needed to think.

It was always peaceful and thankfully no one was usually here at this time of year.

I got out of my car and saw only one other car in the parking lot. I walked towards the trail that didn't have as many clearings along the way, so there was less of a chance for me to come upon someone.

I zipped my jacket up all the way as the wind picked up. I was hoping I would be able to clear my head of everything I couldn't keep out of my head.

Everything that included a certain shape shifter.

It was a half an hour before I heard low voices in the distance. There was a lot of scuffling going on too, like someone was in a fight.

I sped up to see if someone was in trouble and needed some help. I ran around a bend in the trail and came face to face with four huge guys and I nearly knocked over Adria who had her back to me.

"Adria?" Of all the people in the world that had to be there at this moment…

She turned towards me with a panicked look on her face.

"I asked Michael to go for help and of all the people he could get he sends you. Just great." She rolled her eyes and looked back at the four guys.

"Well looky here. Adria got herself a mate. This just gets more fun by the minute." The biggest guy said folding his muscled arms across his chest.

"Stay away from him." Adria snarled back at him. For a girl who didn't want me…

"Testy little thing aren't you baby." The guy with thick black hair said.

"Here's what we're gonna do Adria. You tell us where she is and we'll let you go free. Agreed?"

Who were they looking for?

"Over my dead body." She growled back at them.

That's my girl! I cheered in my head.

"Well if you want it that way…" The biggest guy said taking a step forward.

I moved so I was fully pressed against Adria's back, and then whispered in her ear, "I know you could probably take on all four of these guys, but I think it would be best if we take the retreat option and run like hell back to my car."

She shuddered at my touch. Then became rigid as the big guy took another step forward.

"Sure you can keep up with me?" She whispered back to me.

I hid my smile against the top of her head. "Don't worry about me babe." I whispered in her ear again, blowing lightly.

Smiling as I earned another shudder from her.

"One more chance. Where's the Huntress?" What the hell was the Huntress? Things were way too confusing for me to comprehend.

"One." Adria whispered. I took a step back, Adria insinc with me.

"Two." Another step back.

"Three!" With that I turned around and ran. I ran as fast as I could. Not slowing over fallen logs or roots that stuck out of the ground.

Adria was beside me and I could feel the other guys' seconds behind us.

I knew Adria wasn't going as as fast as she could because of me. I was only human and could only go so fast.

We broke from the trees and into the darkening sky. I could see my car, but then I saw another car come screeching into the parking lot.

It spun towards us and came to a halt. The door was thrown open and I could see Michael waving and yelling for us to get into the car.

I turned in the cars direction and jumped in. There was no time for me to move over so Adria ended up landing on my lap, which I didn't mind at all.

Dane sped out of there gravel spinning wildly everywhere as we raced away from the four guys who just realized we had a getaway car.

For the first for few minutes everything was silent in the car. I had settled more comfortably in the back seat.

Adria had tried to get off my lap multiple times, but I had held her there. Unaware of how I needed her where I could touch her.

To make myself believe she was here and she was okay. Safe from the men that could have possibly hurt her.

"Seth, let me go." She whispered, trying unsuccessfully to crawl off my lap.

"No way. You're staying put." She glared at me, and then put on a calculating smile. What was she up to now?

She leaned forward and put her mouth against my neck. The same exact place she had bitten me before.

She slowly nipped the spot, and then bit down. I instantly sucked in a breath as blood raced to my cock.

I closed my eyes and tried to remember that there were other people in the car, her brother for God's sake.

But before I could do anything she had slipped off my lap and had moved all the way across the seats to her own against the far door.

The expression on her face stopped me from moving towards her. She was staring out the window with a hopeless and empty look on her face.

She kept on running and one of these days she was going to slip and fall.

"You can't keep running babe, no one can." I whispered to her.

**So yup there's chapter 15 =)**

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	17. Chapter 16: Pretzel Wars

Chapter 16: Pretzel Wars

**Author's Note: Hey so I know you are all probably really mad at me for not updating in, almost forever haha and I am so sorry about that. I have no excuse except that vacation was really crazy and yeah that's about it. So here's chapter 16 and chapter 17 should be up this weekend, this time I mean it haha.**

**Read and Review!!!**

**Thanks, ~h~**

**Riley's Point of View**

I was nervously pacing across the living room floor waiting for Michael and Dane to get back, hopefully with Adria unharmed.

I had called Dane about a million times over the past few hours, but he hadn't answered any of them.

I was about to call him again when I heard a few car doors slam shut. I raced to the front door and threw it open.

Adria was climbing out of the back seat of Dane's car with Seth in tow. Dane got out of the driver's seat and Michael followed suit.

Oh thank God they were all alright!

I ran to Adria and hugged her hard. "I'm so glad you're okay!" I said squeezing her even more.

"Riley can't… breathe here." She said pretending to suffocate. I quickly let her go laughing lightly with her.

"I'm fine no harm done. But I'm really tired so I think I'm gonna go get some sleep. See you later." She turned to go, but then must have remembered something.

She turned to Dane, "Thank you."

Dane smiled, but it seemed more of a pity smile if you asked me, "No problem." Then Adria turned and went inside.

Seth and Michael turned towards the house as well.

"Wait a second why were you in the car too?" I said latching onto Seth's arm. He pulled his arm away then wrapped it around my shoulders, pulling me in close.

"I'll explain everything later sis. Too tired tonight." I looked up at his face and realized he did look exhausted.

I wondered what had truly happened today. I gave him a big hug then let him go inside.

"Night Ry Ry." Michael said a small grin on his face.

He was never without a smile to share. It's one of the things I loved about him.

"Night Mickey." I said ruffling his hair.

Dane trailed behind me as we headed up the stairs to our rooms. We had one extra bedroom with two beds, which Adria and Michael were sharing, and Dane had taken my mom's room.

Mine was at the end of the hall while my mom's was on the opposite end. I turned to head to my room, waiting to hear Dane's retreating form, but it never came.

He followed me to my room. I closed the door and he collapsed onto my bed face down. He sighed loudly and I laughed.

"Tired much." I said taking the elastic out of my hair and putting it on my dresser.

He turned over and laid on his back, his head on my pillows. He scooted over so that I could fit next to him.

I crawled onto my bed and laid my head on his chest. He pulled the covers over us and warmth blanketed the air around us.

I closed my eyes and started tracing my name on his chest, like I had done the time he had gotten hurt.

"Mmmm that feels so good." He whispered. His eyes drifting closed.

I kissed his chest, right above his heart then continued to trail my hand along his chest. I fell asleep just like that, with him.

* * *

**Seth's Point of View**

I was dead asleep and didn't think anything could wake me, not even if the house was on fire and people were screaming all around me.

But her hand touched my shoulder and a shock wave of heat tore through me and I was suddenly fully awake.

I sat up to see Adria standing next to my bed. She had on grey sweatpants and a blue t-shirt. She looked sexy as hell and I started picturing her in just my buttoned up shirt.

I looked up at her face and all traces of fantasies of her and me drifted away. Her eyes were misted over and remnants of tears trailed down her cheeks.

"Could you hold me?" She whispered into the air.

I quickly grabbed her hand and tugged her onto my bed. I pulled the covers over us both and pulled her so her back was against my chest.

I wrapped my arm around her waist and put my head next to hers.

She was beginning to fall; I just hoped she would let me catch her.

* * *

Riley's Point of View

The rest of the week was pretty low-key compared to before. It was school every day and make up tests that I tried not to fail.

Our history teacher, assigned us a project and he chose the groups. Luckily Beth and I were picked to be in a group and Tristan was too.

Maybe this way I could get him to open up a bit about who he was. He seemed like a genuine guy if he wasn't so secretive all the time.

It was Friday night and the project was due Tuesday because we had Monday off for parent/teacher conferences. Not that my mother would be able to go. She would have to set it up for another time, which was fine by me.

We made a mutual decision, well Beth and I did, that we would work on the project at my house. I had a laptop, which Beth was continuously asking her parents for and Tristan said we couldn't go to his house. No explanation to go with that little comment.

I parked in my driveway and we all got out and headed inside to get started. Seth's car wasn't in the driveway so he must not be home; actually come to think of it no one's car was in the driveway except mine now.

Then again it was Friday night, although I did miss Dane at the moment.

We walked into the living room and set our backpacks down. "I'll go get my lap top and you guys can start organizing ideas for the paper."

I was back after a few minutes, after getting us some snacks as well. Chips, pretzels, and soda. We all started chowing down and then Beth started writing some ideas in her notebook and I started looking up information on the war we had been assigned.

It was a few minutes later when two pretzels hit my forehead then landed on my lap. I looked up and saw Beth and Tristan quickly look away.

I picked up the pretzels and chucked them back at the two pranksters. Beth didn't duck in time and it hit her cheek, but Tristan caught his before it could inflict any harm.

Could a human even catch something moving that quickly in the air? Let alone see it. They were the stick pretzels, Seth's favorite.

I let it slide as Tristan smirked and Beth started throwing one pretzel after another at me from across the room.

"I surrender! Stop it!" I yelled trying not to laugh. I picked up a pillow off the couch and chucked it at Beth.

It hit her in the head. "Okay, okay." Beth said holding up her hands, with no pretzels in them.

"Wow you two are so immature." Tristan said with a serious face. I gave Beth a knowing look and then said, "Get him!" Beth tackled him to the ground because she was closest to him. I grabbed another pillow and joined in pummeling him.

"This is so not productive." I said laughing as my arm starting cramping from throwing the pillow at him so much. Beth and Tristan sat up and leaned back against the couch next to me.

"Much more fun though." Beth said tossing a pretzel towards Tristan and he caught it in his mouth.

"Nice." I said. It was then that I heard two car doors slam and running feet up the front steps.

"Riley!" Dane yelled my name and he sounded frantic. I gave a quizzical look to Beth, but she shrugged. Of course she wouldn't really know what was going on because I hadn't introduced the two of them yet.

She would be mad that I hadn't told her, but I was sure she would get over it soon enough. Dane and I were a lot more complicated than any, I guess human, should know.

"I should go." Tristan said as he stood up and backed farther into the living room towards the big TV in the corner.

I turned towards him. "Oh you don't have to go. It's just Dane, my, umm, my boyfriend. He just gets a little over protective sometimes, but you don't have to go."

As the last words left my mouth I felt a warm sensation before Dane was grabbing me around the waist and putting me behind him.

"Where is he Tristan?" Dane's voice was more of a growl than anything else and I saw Beth take a step away from him.

Well I guess his first impression would be a lasting memory for Beth.

"I'm not like him Dane. I swear. I hate him. He turned into a monster and if he knows I told you where he is, he'll kill me." I couldn't see Tristan because Dane's big body was in the way, but Tristan's voice sounded sympathetic.

Tristan knew Keenan? This was getting weirder by the minute.

I turned towards the front door and saw that Michael was leaning against it. "Oh hey." I whispered to him as Dane and Tristan continued to glare at each other, well Dane was glaring I think.

"Hey. Do you want me to take your friend home? It's Beth right?" I nodded and thanked him. "I owe you one."

Beth saw me wave her over and she quickly grabbed her backpack and scooted around Dane as far away as possible.

"I'll tell you everything later, I promise." I told her as she gave me a quick hug and headed with Michael out the door.

"Oh I remember you. You're Riley's cousin and you took her to go fishing one weekend right?" Oh dear lord.

I didn't hear Michael's response, but was sure to get asked about it by him when he got back.

"I wasn't going to hurt her Dane. I would never. She's yours, Keenan just doesn't understand that. He wants to get at you by stealing her. I don't know what he's planning, but I thought if I stayed close by at school he couldn't take her then. You can't be with her all the time. I owe you my life Dane, I owe you and this is how I'm repaying you."

Dane sighed and ran his hand through his hair. I tried to walk in front of him, but before I could go two feet away he grabbed me around the waist and pulled my back up against him.

"I need you close right now, please don't argue with me. You can do that later." He said still looking at Tristan across the room.

I wanted to sit because if someone walked into the living room right now they would think they were watching a wrestling match about to begin and I was in the middle of it.

"Can we please just sit and you two can explain the very confusing conversation you both are having?"

After a minute Dane said, "Fine." And Tristan nodded. Tristan sat down on the carpet facing the couch where I went and sat down.

Dane sat next to me and grabbed my hand. "So you owe Dane your life? How'd that come to be?"

Tristan looked over at Dane then back to me. "Keenan and Dane used to be best friends when they were like seven. I was only four at the time and without mom and dad around Keenan always had to watch out for me. He hated it and I think I've always known he hated me. He just didn't show it until two years ago, but that's a whole other story. Anyways, so one day Keenan and Dane decided to go walk up on the cliffs and of course Keenan couldn't just leave me at home, so he brought me with him."

Dane cut in then, "I thought it was the stupidest idea to bring a four year old up on the bluffs, but Keenan insisted that it would be a lot of fun. He usually got his way; he was always good at persuading people. So we were headed back down a steep incline when Tristan lost his footing and started slipping towards the rocks below. It was about a hundred foot drop. Keenan hadn't even noticed that his brother was slipping and could have easily caught him, but instead I had to jump down to catch him before he went over the edge. I even popped my shoulder out of place in the process."

"And if he hadn't I wouldn't be alive today." Tristan finished.

"So you owe him your life and you're stuck repaying him by babysitting me. I feel so sorry for you. Babysitting me would be the last thing I would ever want to do." I get into enough trouble all the time; it would be crazy to think that anyone could stop anything bad that happened to me. Dane couldn't stop it so I doubt Tristan could.

He shrugged. "It's not all bad." He said cracking a smile.

"Gee thanks." I joked back.

Before anyone could say anything else Tristan's cell phone rang and he looked to see who was calling.

"I have to go, but umm I guess we still have to finish that project sometime." Oh yeah the project. We hadn't gotten anything done this afternoon.

"Oh, I'll call you and let you know when we can work on it again. Not that we did much today."

"A pretzel war doesn't count for a historical battle?" He said smiling as he grabbed his bag and headed towards the door.

"I doubt that could be considered a war." I laughed as Dane and I followed behind him.

"Too bad." He said with a smile as he walked out of the house.

"I'm not even going to ask." Dane said looking down at me.

I laughed and turned towards the kitchen. "Where's everyone else?" Dane sat down on one of the stools as I stood across the table from him and leaned my arms on the counter.

"Seth said he was bringing home pizza for all of us and Adria was at the mall I think." I guess they still had some issues to work out.

Just then the front door opened and a second later Adria walked in with an array of shopping bags.

"Best shopping day ever. Sales in like every store. Everything was on sale. I even got you two cute shirts to wear to school." She said enthusiastically, handing me a bag from Nordstroms.

"Aww you didn't have to do that." But pulling the shirts out of the bag anyways and holding them against me to see what they looked like.

One was a forest green v-neck t-shirt, one that had some style so it didn't look like just an ordinary t-shirt and the other one was a three quarter sleeve white shirt. I loved them.

"I wanted to. Plus they were…" Dane spoke over her, "On sale. Yes we know. What's up with you? You hate shopping." Dane said giving her a questioning look. His lips growing taut like they always did when he was trying to think of an answer to something.

"When was the last time you bit him Adria?" She looked away from him and that was answer enough.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself. You can't keep avoiding him; sooner or later you're going to have to face the fact that you're mates." Dane said in an authoritive tone.

She was silent for a few minutes then spoke softly, "Trust isn't something you can get back easily. I can't trust anyone, not after…" She didn't finish her sentence and didn't have time to because Seth and Michael came into the kitchen carrying three boxes of pizza.

"Food is served!" Seth said as they placed the boxes on the counter.

All the pizza vanished in less than half an hour. I was starved and ended up eating four pieces and these were no little slices of pizza either.

We were all laughing at something Michael had said when something crashed through the kitchen window above the sink and landed on the floor.

Before I knew what was happening Dane had thrown me onto the floor and was lying on top of me.

The air around me began to get cloudy as some kind of gas came out of the black ball that had crashed through the window.

I tried not to breathe it in, but soon I needed to breathe and took in a breath of air. I started choking on the gas and tried to see where everyone else was.

It was then that I noticed two people dressed in all black with masks on their faces to protect them from the gas.

Dane had rolled off of me as he tried to go after them, but the gas was slowly making him lose consciousness.

I tried to stay awake, but my eyelids began to shut of their own accord and the last thing I saw was Seth and Adria being carried out of the house by those two guys.

Not Seth! No! They couldn't take him. Besides my mother, he was all I had left. He was the best brother in the world and they were trying to take him from me.

I was able to get onto my hands and knees and crawl towards the front door, but my strength was depleting and I ended up collapsing on the floor.

I slowly lost consciousness with only the thought that Seth was gone, maybe forever, just like my dad was.

And I had a feeling it was because of the same shape shifter that had started all of this, Keenan.

**Author's note: Hi everyone, so just want to let you know that lots of things are going to happen in the next chapter (chp.17), Seth and Adria are kidnapped (Seth's POV will be in this chp.) and Riley wants to rescue them, will Dane agree? Or think it too dangerous? I promise to upload as soon as I can. I am extremely sorry I don't upload as often as I should! I know it's a bad habit, but I'm trying to get better at it… promise!**

**Please Review! I want to hear your thoughts… any suggestions? And I have a question for you guys… do you want Seth and Adria to have their own fanfic story? or do you like how it is now, with their story within Dane and Riley's story? Let me know!!!**

**Thanks, ~h~**


	18. Chapter 17:Royally Fucked

Chapter 17: Royally Fucked

**Author's Note: Hi again! So thanks for everyone who reviewed! I like to know what you guys think, it really helps. So here's chapter 17 Enjoy!! =)**

**Seth's Point of View**

I woke to the sound of something pacing next to me. I slowly opened my eyes and sat up to see a black panther pacing a few feet away from me.

I panicked for about five seconds until I realized it was Adria and it also took me those five seconds to remember all that had happened last night.

I jumped to my feet, but a wave of dizziness assaulted me. Okay definitely shouldn't have gotten up that fast.

It was almost pitch black in the cell like room we were being held in. The only light was from a small glass window in the upper right corner of the room, far out of reach.

The moon shone through it and I looked back at Adria who had stopped pacing to stare at me with her big green panther eyes.

She was a beautiful cat; if it made any sense to say that. She was sleek and had a graceful air about her, just like she seemed to have in human form.

I leaned against the cold cement wall for support as I tried to get rid of the dizziness that refused to leave me.

I closed my eyes hoping it would stop the spinning and when I opened my eyes a few minutes later Adria was back in human form.

Still looking beautiful as always. She came towards me and didn't stop until her body was pressed up against mine.

Well this was a different Adria than before, the other one would be running away from me as fast as she could. I was about to comment on exactly that when she said, "Don't get any ideas I'm just helping you feel better so that you can help us escape out of here."

I raised my eyebrows at her. "And how are you supposed to do that?" Her response was to lean her head and place her mouth over the same spot between my neck and shoulder where she had bitten me before.

"Adria I doubt this is exactly the right time to be doing this…" She laughed and then all of a sudden bit down.

Oh God. The sensation of her biting me made my blood run hot and my cock jerk to attention. I tried to argue that this wasn't the best place, but my train of thought was lost in the desire for her to continue and never stop.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer to me, illicit ting a moan from her. She then started trailing hot kisses up my neck and onto my jaw.

"_Adria…_" I warned as she continued to nip and lick. I wasn't going to last much longer and she would regret it, like she always did.

I pulled my arms from around her back and then pushed her a few inches away from me, but needing the contact of my hands on her waist.

"You can't have it all while I get nothing in return. If you can't trust me then don't expect me to let you do this every time you bite me. It's all or nothing Adria and sooner or later you're going to have to figure that out."

She looked away from me and I couldn't read the expression on her face, not did I have time to because our cell door slammed open and in walked the same big guy that had been in the woods a few weeks before.

"So we meet again." The guy said to me and then looked to Adria. He was wearing all black from head to toe.

"Felling better I presume?" He asked stepping farther into the room. Adria stepped in front of me, as I tried to push her behind me.

"I'm the semi-unkillable one here. Don't argue with me on this." She whispered from in front of me. This was true, but still I was only trying to be chivalrous.

"But that's the fun part." I said half jokingly. I then pulled her closer to me until her back hit my chest.

The guy stared at us for a few seconds and Adria finally gave an annoyed sigh. "What do you want Pete?"

The name Pete did not suit him at all. It was like a huge guy with the name Tiny.

I kept my thoughts to myself not wanting to aggravate him even though he actually has this weird smile on his face.

"It's not what we want from you two. Keenan's already got that. She's probably already on her way here."

What was he talking about? Who's she?

Adria seemed to go rigid in front of me and I didn't like it one bit. Something bad was going to happen and it was going to happen soon.

"No she won't. Dane won't let her come." Adria's voice sounded doubtful and held little confidence in the statement.

They must be talking about Riley.

"Yes he will. He can't so no to his mate, he can't say no to the Huntress."

And with that he walked out of the cell a smug smile still on his face.

"Riley's the Huntress they want?" I asked as Adria turned towards me.

"Yes and if they get a hold of her and Keenan marries her we're all under his command and well we all know what that means…"

She walked and sat down with her back against the wall, then closed her eyes.

Yeah I may not be a shape shifter, but I think I know what she meant. If they got a hold of Riley we were all royally fucked.

* * *

**Riley's Point of View**

I woke to someone gently shaking me and calling my name. I opened my eyes slowly and blinked a couple to times.

I looked up into the worried faces of Dane and Michael. "Come on sweetheart you gotta shift." Dane said as he helped me sit and then stand up.

I leaned against him as we walked towards the back door that Michael held open and then we were outside in the cool air.

It helped clear my mind, but not that much as another wave of dizziness came over me.

"Riley you have to shift. It will help get rid of the symptoms of the gas in your system." Dane said gently as he stepped away from me.

Michael had just shifted and was now a black panther staring up at me. I knew it was Michael, but a shiver raced down my back anyways at the memory of Keenan killing my father.

Oh my God Seth! Adria! The memories of last night finally broke through my haze filled mind. They were kidnapped. They could be dead.

I looked at Dane and he seemed to understand that I had just remembered everything that happened.

"Shift Riley. We'll figure everything out later." That would have been a good idea if I wasn't afraid to shift.

"I can't." I hadn't shifted since the day I turned into a tiger. It had felt so weird.

"Yes you can. We'll do it together. Trust me Riley." He came towards me and bent his head down to mine and kissed me.

My mind was hazy before, but now it was completely blank except for the sensations moving throughout me.

His lips were soft, yet hard and one of his hands cupped my jaw. I leaned into him and deepened the kiss.

He licked my bottom lip looking for permission and I quickly opened my mouth for him to sweep in and steal my breath away.

"Get a room." Michael's voice had me jumping away from Dane.

"Sorry." I mumbled as my face went bright red. I looked over to Dane and saw him trying to hide a smile.

"I'll be in the house." Michael said as he jogged to the back door and went inside.

"Ready?" Dane asked looking to me as he stepped farther away from me.

I nodded.

"Just close your eyes and shift." And with that Dane jumped into the air and landed on all fours as the white tiger he was.

I closed my eyes and hoped to God I was doing this right, if there was even a right way to shift. Who knew?

In the next second I felt myself falling and then a tingling sensation of air surround me and when I opened my eyes I was on all fours and looking at my yard from a whole new perspective.

I tried running a few feet and found it quite odd, but was trying to get used to it.

_That wasn't so bad, now was it?_ Dane's voice in my head had me jumping in the air and whirling around to face him.

_You can read my mind?_ It was weird talking and looking at him in tiger form and luckily my back yard had enough trees to hide us from any neighbors.

That would have been funny; they would probably think they had lost their minds.

_No. Only what you say._ Oh well that was okay. As long as it wasn't my thoughts. At least I could have some privacy.

_Can I shift back now?_ I would explore what it meant to be a tiger and all that I could do later. After we had rescued my brother and Adria.

He nodded his head and I closed my eyes, imagining myself in my human form. I was back to myself in a few seconds and followed Dane back inside the house.

Michael was eating a turkey and ham sandwich at the island in the middle of the kitchen. "Finally. So what's the plan?" Michael asked with a mouthful of food looking to Dane.

Dane went to the refrigerator and got out a bottle of water and tossed it to me. There was left over lasagna from two nights ago that Dane pulled out as well.

He looked over at me, but I shook my head. I couldn't eat when I had no idea where Seth and Adria were.

He made a plate for me anyways and put it in the microwave. "I'm not hungry." I told him as I sat down next to Michael on one of the tall chairs.

"You need to eat. Keep up your strength. Especially after last night." He seemed mad at himself for what had happened. He always blamed himself.

"Must I remind you that no one's invincible. You can't always be the superhero Dane." He growled at that and took out the lasagna and placed the plate in front of me.

I looked at it and my stomach started rolling. "I can't eat. I'll eat something later." I said and pushed the plate away.

Dane sighed, but let it go. "So is that a no to a plan Dane? Cause if anything happens to my sister…" I knew exactly how Michael was feeling. If anything happened to Seth I don't know what I'd do.

Dane walked around the table and pulled me to my feet; he then sat down in my chair and pulled me onto his lap.

I would have objected, but I needed him right now. He grabbed my plate with the uneaten lasagna on it and took a bite before answering Michael.

"Yes. It's still in the making, but I'm sure it'll work. I'm gonna call Jonathan and hopefully James can come here and help out too."

Michael nodded, "Okay what do you need me to do?" He then got up and put his plate in the sink.

"Nothing for now. I want to tell everyone the plan once they get here. Take a nap or something. And don't worry about Adria I'm sure she's fine and making Seth's life hell." Dane chuckled and Michael gave him a hint of a small despite the worry that shone in his eyes.

"Okay. Wake me up the second they get here." I could feel Dane nod from behind me and then Michael headed upstairs.

I was about to get up when Dane put his fork in front of my mouth with a piece of the lasagna on it.

"Bite." He said inching it closer to me. I shook my head, but he inched it closer until it touched my lips.

"Come on. One bite." Lasagna _was_ one of my favorite foods…

I opened my mouth and took the piece of lasagna off the fork. I closed my eyes and savored the flavor as Dane laughed.

"Told you. I am right occasionally you know. Even if according to you I can't always be your superhero." He moved the plate in front of me and handed me his fork.

He then lifted me off of his lap and got up. "Where're you going?" I almost started to panic.

"Don't worry. I'm just going to call Jonathan. I promise I'll be back in like five minutes." He said smiling and walked into the living room, pulling out his cell phone.

I sat down and finished the lasagna not knowing how hungry I had been.

Dane came back a few minutes later and said that Jonathan and a bunch of others were on their way and would get here in about an hour.

Now there was nothing to do, but wait.

An hour later I heard the doorbell ring and raced to open the front door. My hand was on the doorknob when Dane unceremoniously picked me up and placed me behind him saying, "Didn't your mom ever teach you to never open the door for strangers?"

I rolled my eyes as he looked out the window then opened the door. Jonathan stepped inside and then a bunch of other people that I had met when I went to Dane's secret house, but didn't really remember. So many things had been going on that I couldn't keep everyone's names straight.

"Hey Riley! Don't worry we're gonna find Seth." Jonathan said giving me a hug then heading into the living room.

Everyone else shuffled into the living room as well. There were seven in all not including Michael, Dane, and I.

Dane went and leaned against the mantel above the fireplace and crossed his arms over his chest. Everyone either sat on the couch or slumped against the walls and waited for him to speak.

I went over and sat on the couch where Michael had saved me a seat.

"Adria and Riley's brother, Seth, have been kidnapped by Keenan and they made it pretty easy to find out where Keenan took them. That means he wants something. I just can't figure out what. Anyone have any suggestions?"

I now understood why he was king. He let everyone have their say and commanded at the same time.

"Keenan was after your mate and you took her away from him, do you think he wants her back? The past you've had with him he must want what you were able to get." This was said by a guy who looked stocky, but tall and short light blonde hair.

"Maybe he just wants revenge against you. But then again why did he take Adria too?" This was said by a girl, I think her name was Renee, who had shoulder length nutmeg hair.

Both good questions. But I think I knew the answer to one of them. "Well they're mates. Can't mates die without the other if they haven't bitten the other in a while?" I looked to Dane for conformation.

"True, but Keenan always has an ulterior motive. We're missing something." The blonde haired guy suggested before Dane spoke.

"You're missing the one thing none of you have probably thought about in over a hundred years." We all turned at the sound of Tristan's voice in the door way of the living room.

"And what's that?" Dane inquired.

"Riley. The Huntress."

**Cliff hanger sorry. So I hoped you guys liked this chapter! Please let me know what you all thought!**

**REVIEW!!! Any suggestions? Comments? =)**

**Thanks, ~h~**


	19. Chapter 18: That Bubble has Popped

Chapter 18: That Bubble has Already been Popped

**Author's Notes: Hi so here's chapter 18 =) Hope you guys like it!! There's some mature moments between Dane and Riley just wanted to let you know, sorry if you don't like it =( but yeah just wanted to warn you**

**Thanks, ~h~**

**Riley's Point of View**

I burst out laughing when Tristan accused me of being a Huntress, whatever that meant.

"You can't be serious. A Huntress? What is that even supposed to mean?" I looked to Dane for assurance that Tristan had gone totally insane, but instead I got an expression of shock from him.

He believed Tristan.

"The Huntress? The Huntress that supposedly holds the power over every shape shifter in the world. And can control them with her mind in her animal form? That Huntress?" Blonde guy asked, his name was Danny, Michael had told me.

Tristan nodded. "And Keenan wants her so that he can take control of every single one of us."

"No… no. That's not possible. I don't control people's minds. That is so not possible. You're just playing a sick joke." I was kind of getting a little hysterical at this point.

To think I was the cause of everything bad that had happened in my life. For my father's life. For Seth's kidnapping, maybe even death. It was all because of me.

Dane must have noticed I was about to break down and rushed over to me. He picked me up and carried me out of the room.

He headed towards the back door and I was suddenly standing out in the freezing night air. "Hey sweetheart calm down. You're fine. When you're worried, I'm ten times more scared than you are." He put me down, but kept me close.

He pushed my hair out of my face and looked down at me. "We don't even know if you really are the Huntress, all right?"

"Actually I found Keenan's research on her and her entire family, they're descendants from the Huntress and then it also went on to say whichever female of their heritage was bitten first, she will become the next Huntress."

Tristan said from his place on the backyard deck. Dane left me and had Tristan pinned against the side of the house in five seconds flat.

"Shut up. Don't say another word." Dane was beyond pissed.

"I'm just saying you should face the facts before you lose your mate forever." Tristan looked back at me and then to Dane.

Dane's shoulders slumped and then he let Tristan go. "Dane we need a game plan here. We need to surprise him, strike when he least expects it." Jonathan said as he joined the small group that had gathered on the deck.

Dane ran his hands through his hair and I walked up to him and linked my arm with his. He looked down at me and then to Jonathan.

"Right. A plan."

Several hours later, many pizza boxes empty and glasses in the sink, I was splayed out on the ground listening to Dane, Jonathan and a few others disgust strategies for rescuing Seth and Adria.

I could barely concentrate on what they were saying from my tiredness. I hadn't had a good night sleep in a while and it was catching up to me.

I could leave and go up to my room, but I was afraid I would miss something and I wanted to be in the loop for when we were going to attack, although come to think of it they never said what I was supposed to do.

I wanted to help rescue my brother and Adria. I had gotten him into this mess and I was going to get him out of it.

But for now I just wanted to sleep, preferably with Dane. I rolled onto my stomach to see what they were talking about now.

I put my hands under my chin and caught Dane's eye. He stopped mid sentence and got up to stand over me.

"Come on." He held out his hand and helped me stand up. "We'll make the rest of the plans tomorrow morning."

As well as making a plan, everyone had also made reservations to stay in a hotel not far from here. Not everyone could fit into a house with only four bedrooms.

"Sorry." I said over my shoulder to everyone because I was taking their leader away from them. I needed him more.

I got to my room and collapsed onto my bed. Dane followed me and pulled me close to his chest.

It was the first time in a while that I felt I could fully relax.

"Do you think Seth and Adria are okay?" I asked putting my head on his chest.

"Yeah. Keenan won't hurt them until he has a reason to." I prayed he was right.

"Is Tristan right? I'm the Huntress?" He didn't answer me for a few minutes and I was beginning to think he wouldn't when he said, "You're exhausted. Get some sleep. We'll figure everything out tomorrow."

He didn't want to answer me. He was up to something, I didn't know what, but I was going to find out.

I rolled over on my side of the bed and pulled the covers up to my chin.

"Riley…" Dane said then seemed at a loss for something to say.

"Night Dane." I whispered before closing my eyes and falling asleep.

I woke to the sound of voices downstairs. I looked over to see the place where Dane had slept empty.

He was probably downstairs with everyone else. I looked at my bedside clock. It was twelve o'clock in the afternoon.

I was a little mad that Dane hadn't woken me. I wanted to stay in the loop about what was going on, but he seemed to always try and keep me out of it.

I quickly went to the bathroom and brushed my hair, washed my face, and then brushed my teeth. I went back to my room and threw on a pair of jeans and the green v-neck t-shirt Adria had gotten me.

I entered the living room to find everyone sitting or standing around the coffee table that seemed to have a big piece of paper on it, on closer inspection it looked to a set of blue prints of a house.

Jonathan was explaining something to Dane who shook his head. "No they're most likely hidden in the basement. They know we're coming they just don't know when. Keenan will think we'll strike at night. That's when he'll have most guards on duty. We should attack at dawn. Surprising them even more will give us a greater advantage than attacking at night."

Dane then pointed to three others. Danny and two other guys. "I need you two to do peripheral scans when we get there. If there are any shape shifter's there you know what to do."

He then pointed to two girls. "Marie and Gabby when Danny gives the go ahead I need you to take out the guard's watching the front and back doors."

Michael came to stand beside me. "Dane picks each of them for a reason. Danny, Josh, and Henry work the best as a team. And Marie and Gabby are the stealthiest shape shifters I know, something in being cougar's allows them to be completely silent when sneaking up on people."

"Then Jonathan and I will head inside to find Seth and Adria. Once your team is secure, Danny stay close by because we may need your help. I'll let you know what the situation is once we're inside."

Dane looked down at the blue prints again and I turned to Michael. "What's your job?" Michael then grinned at me. "I'm the getaway car. Seth and Adria jump into the car and then I get the hell out of there. It'll be the best adrenaline rush ever." He said enthusiastically and I laughed at his energetic face.

Boys and their cars.

"Michael stay close to the house, but stay invisible until I give you the signal." Dane then looked to me standing next to Michael, but quickly looked away towards James who I remembered seeing at the seminar.

"And James you know you're job." Dane mumbled to him before looking back at the blue prints.

For some reason I had a feeling he didn't want me to hear that. What was James's job?

"What about me?" Dane's head jerked up at the sound of my voice.

"I get to miss all the fun staying here with you at the house. No offense." James said as he turned to me.

I was fuming now. "I'm not staying here Dane. I will not stay out of this like a little princess who might break a nail. I'm going to help whether you like it or not." I folded my arms and glared at him from across the room.

He stood up and looked at me. "I can't do my job if I'm worried about you every second we're trying to rescue Seth and Adria."

He has got to be kidding me.

"Well you're just going to have to suck it up. It's my fault Seth and Adria are there and I'm going to be there to rescue them."

Dane shook his head. "The closer you are to Keenan the more likely chance that he can take you. I won't let him take you, not again."

He did have a point there, but I did have one thing he couldn't compete with. "If I really am the Huntress than I can help. I want to help Dane, I need to." It wasn't just about Seth. It was about all that Keenan had done to my family. He killed my father, my mother could barely go a week without crying and then he turned me into the one thing I had sworn to hate.

"That's beside the point. You're not going Riley. That's an order." Oh yeah, the whole alpha thing; him being king and all. We had to obey him.

I was his mate. His fricking mate and he was giving _me_ orders I was supposed to obey? He must be delusional.

I laughed and said, "You can't be serious. You might get everyone in this room to abide by your rules, but I'm your mate Dane."

A scared look entered his eyes and I hated that I put it there.

"Plus she's the Huntress. She doesn't have to obey anyone." Tristan said from his spot on the couch facing the TV.

Dane started for him, but I stepped in front of him and put my hands on his chest. "You can't keep me in this safe little bubble that you think can keep me protected from everyone in the world. That bubble popped the day I met you. So get over it and let me help."

He sighed and stared down at me. "I swear to God if you get hurt…"

"I know. Same goes for you." I smiled up at him. He gave a denying snort. "Yeah like anyone could ever hurt me."

I rolled my eyes. Such a guy.

"Twenty bullets wasn't enough Dane?" Jonathan said as he got up and headed into the kitchen.

Dane chuckled and turned to everyone else. "We're attacking tomorrow morning at dawn. I suggest everyone get some rest."

For the rest of the day we all hung out and pretended like the next day we weren't going to war, well not really war, but you know what I mean.

It was nine o' clock when everyone started to leave. They would be back around four in the morning, ready to go.

I headed up to my room while Dane stayed and talked with Jonathan and Michael some more.

I got changed into grey cotton shorts and a black t-shirt. I climbed in bed and stared up at the ceiling unable to fall asleep.

I kept thinking that tomorrow could be it. I could die, Dane could die. Dane was my life and if he were to be taken from it, I don't think I could live through it.

I was still thinking about this when I heard my door open and close. It was pitch black in my room and I didn't see Dane until he climbed over me and onto my bed.

"Hey." I whispered.

"Hey." He said back, turning on his side to look over at me.

"Will you have sex with me?" I blurted out before I knew what I was saying.

His eyes got huge for a few seconds and he was shocked into silence.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to say that. Well I kind of meant it. It's just that tomorrow we could die and I don't think I could live without you and I just wanted to…"

"Riley shhh it's okay. Calm down. Stop blabbering." He said chuckling at me.

My cheeks were probably flaming red right now. Way to go Riley.

"I'm not having sex with you. At least not now, not because tomorrow might be the last day we have together, which it won't be by the way. No one's going to die. You think way too much, you know that?" He said smiling at me.

He moved over until he was on top of me and our legs intertwined. He put his arms on either side of me holding his weight up so he wouldn't crush me.

He then bent his head against my neck and bit down. I gasped as a wave of heat shot through me. He then licked over the bite and more sensations cascaded through me.

This felt so good, he felt so good. "I thought you said we weren't going to have sex?"

He chuckled against my neck. "We're not. That doesn't mean we can't do anything." My heart started pounding as I thought of the many things I've only read in romance novels.

"Only if you want to." I answered him by bringing his mouth down to mine. He coaxed me to open my mouth and his tongue swooped in.

I moaned and put my hands on his chest, grabbing his shirt. I pulled it up and over his head, breaking our kiss for a second.

He came back and I started exploring the many ridges on his chest. He was hard as rock, yet his skin was smooth.

He felt perfect above me. We continued to kiss and I felt one of his hands touch my hip and then stop at the hem of my shirt.

He was waiting for permission. Not many guys would do that, just saying. More perfect by the minute.

I took my shirt in my hands and helped him lift it off of me. He splayed one of his hands across my stomach and goose bumps soon raced across my skin.

His hand left a warm trail of sensation as it moved up my body until it reached my bra.

His hand covered my bra and gentle applied pressure. I gasped and moaned at the sensations it caused.

He moved his hands to my back and found the clasp to my bra. "Can I?" His voice husky and deep with need.

I nodded biting my lower lip in anticipation. He undid the clasp and my breasts were suddenly exposed to the air and his eyes.

I looked anywhere but at him. A little embaraced, yet wanting this at the same time. The farthest I've gone with a guy was making out, so I wasn't very experienced at this. Plus I didn't have big boobs; I mean they weren't tiny either. I was only a 38 B, but still…

"You're beautiful." I heard him whisper as he turned my face to look at him. He then bent his head and kissed me. It was a slow kiss, a seductive kiss where I began to lose my mind in it.

It was heady and I moaned as he reached up and took hold of my right breast. His hand was warm and my nipple instantly tightened further.

I gasped and arched into his hand. "Easy sweetheart." He whispered against my ear. Sensations were pouring through me and every time he rolled my nipple between his fingers, tingles of sensations went all the way to my toes.

He brought his mouth down to mine again and started kissing me. His tongue explored my mouth and I started rocking my hips with his.

He groaned at this and met me, but then he was pulling away.

"If I don't stop now I won't be able to." He said as he laid down on his back. I was breathing hard beside him and so was he.

"What if I don't want you to?" I asked. He made me feel things I had never felt before and I never wanted them to end.

He chuckled and pulled the blanket over both of us and then pulled me up against his chest. "You'll thank me later."

"Will I?" I asked clasping my hand in his.

"You'll love thanking me later and I will too. Now go to sleep before I ask you to thank me now and forget why I stopped in the first place."

I smiled at that and snuggled closer to him as he wrapped his arm around my waist.

I slowly fell asleep, but my smile gradually slipped away as tomorrow's fight filled my dreams and soon enough turned into nightmares.

**Author's Note: So what did you think? Like it? Hate it? Let me know! Sorry that there was no Seth and Adria in this one, but they will be in the next chapter! **

**Please REVIEW! I need to know what you think! Plus more reviews equals faster updates =)**

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